Lapis de Goa Spurius, c1745-1807

Description

Glass specie jar containing five specimens of false Goa stone. From the Burges Collection.

Text on paper label reads ‘Catal. mat. med. p. 140. No. 43. Lapis de Goa spurius.’

Goa stone was an artificial version of the Bezoar, which were intestinal calculi from various animals.

Pomet, in his Compleat History of Druggs, says that Bezoars were used as ‘a Preservative from pestilential Air, and a Remedy for the Small-Pox, Measles, or other contagious Diseases. It is reckoned also proper against Vertigo’s, Epilepsies, Palpitation of the Heart, Jaundice, Cholick, Dysentery, Gravel, to procure Labour Pains, and against Poisons.’