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Adeps Ursi, c1745-1807

© 2021 Royal Pharmaceutical Society

Description

Cardboard box, enclosing a glass cup sealed with leather and plastic wrapping, containing bear fat. From the Burges Collection.

Text on paper box labels reads ‘ADEPS URSI’ and ‘Catal. Mat. Med. p.119 no. 4’.

Pomet, in his Compleat History of Druggs, says that ‘This Fat, or Grease, is a sovereign Remedy for curing cold rheumatick Humours. It is also much valued for easing Pains of the Gout, by rubbing the afflicted Part, and to make the Hair grow; it being esteem’d admirable against Baldness, especially when incorporated with Bees in Powder and Nut-Oil.’