Lap. Manati Spur, c1745-1807

Description

Glass jar, with plastic screw top lid and paper labels, containing what is spuriously labelled as a bone from the head of a manatee. From the Burges Collection.

Text on paper labels reads ‘Catal. Mat. Med. p. 115. No. 55’ and ‘LAP. MANATI SPUR.’

Pomet, in his Compleat History of Druggs, describes the true lapis manati as ‘a whitish Stone, or rather a bone taken out of the Head of the Manatea Fish, that is white and hard; sometimes like a Tooth, and somewhat resembling the whitest Ivory, but much harder; it is a fix’d Alcali, absorbs Acids, eases the Pain of the Stomach, cures Heart-burning and the Colick; is good against Stone and Gravel, and to expell Urine’