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Human Remains (Burges Collection of Materia Medica, late 1700s)

© 2021 Royal Pharmaceutical Society

Description

The Burges Collection contains many medicinal ingredients derived from the human body.
They include (from left to right): a roll of skin; a mummified jawbone with teeth; pieces of skull bone; a mummified hand and a lump of solidified blood.

These various objects were all considered at one time to contain medicinal properties, able to cure such ailments as epilepsy, muscle cramps, vomiting, and asthma.

Fact

Human mummies were often thought important pharmaceutical ingredients and during the 18th Century there existed a roaring trade in fake bodies.