The nurse eventually finished feeling his scalp and got a bottle with a cotton-swab brush. It was filled with an electric-green liquid which she began spreading on his bare skin. After the initial coldness, there was a spreading warmth from it—kind of like an Icy-Hot patch, or maybe Vicks VapoRub. It had a vague medicinal smell, like a cross between licorice, spearmint, and a third smell which they masked, something sharp and bitter.