Hippopotamus Incisor Tusk, c1745-1807

Description

Glass specie jar containing one suspended specimen of hippopotamus tooth. From the Burges Collection.

Text on paper contents labels reads ‘Catal. Mat. Med. p. 113. No. 29’ and ‘Hippopotamus incisor tusk’.

Pomet, in his Compleat History of Druggs, says that ‘The Tooth worn, or a Ring made thereof, helps the Hemorrhoids [Haemorrhoids], and easeth the Tooth-ach’.