Lapis Judaicus, c1745-1807

Description

Glass specie jar containing specimens of Lapis Judaicus, or Jew’s Stone. From the Burges Collection.

These ‘stones’ were the fossilised spines of sea urchins. These specimens were collected by Daniel Hanbury, ‘Purchased of a peasant near Beyrout’ (Beirut) in September 1860.

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’.