Lap Judaicus, c1745-1807

Description

Glass jar, with glass lid and paper labels, containing specimens of Lapis Judaicus, or Jew’s Stone. From the Burges Collection.

Text on paper contents labels reads ‘Catal. Mat. Med. p. 141, no. 52.’ and ‘LAP. JUDAICUS.’

These ‘stones’ were the fossilised spines of sea urchins.

Lemery says that the Lapis Judaicus was powdered and ‘given to stop Fluxes of the Belly, to provoke Urine, and to break the Stone in the Kidneys and Bladder’.