Fossilised Unicorn Horn (Burges Collection of Materia Medica, late 1700s)

Without the knowledge and global information network we have today, medieval and later apothecaries often found it difficult to reconcile the fact and fiction of where their more exotic ingredients came from. Unicorn horn was an ancient poison antidote said to be worth its weight in gold, but in reality was the spiral tusk of the narwhal. Fossilised unicorn horn may have been mammoth tusk, or indeed any other fossilised tooth or bone.

The Unicorn is an Animal which our Naturalists describe under the Figure of a Horse, having in the Middle of his Head a spiral Horn, of two or three Foot long; but as we know not the real Truth of this Matter to this Day, I shall only say, that what we sell under the Name of the Unicorn’s Horn, is the Horn of a certain Fish, by the Islanders called Narvual.

Pierre Pomet, A Compleat History of Druggs, 1712