Astacus Fluviatilis, c1745-1807

Description

Glass specie jar containing a specimen of Astacus fluviatilis (Astacus astacus), the crayfish. From the Burges Collection.

Text on paper contents label reads ‘Astacus fluviatilis Crayfish’.

Described as ‘the scource of crab’s eyes’. Pomet, in his Compleat History of Druggs, says that a substance from the tail of a crayfish ‘expos’d to the Fire, or set in the Sun, melts, and runs into Oil, which is a true Balsam for fresh Wounds’.