Calculi e Vesica Humana, c1745-1807

Glass specie jar containing one small and two large specimens of calculi from the bladder of an Irish gentleman (1704 and 1705). From the Burges Collection.

Text on paper contents label reads ‘Cat. mat. med. p. 181 No. 66, Calculi e Vesica humana. Ph Lond : 1721.’

Lewis describes human calculi as a sort of bezoar and says that ‘Some…report that they have found it to act as an excellent sudorific and diuretic’.