Madrepora, c1745-1807

Description

Glass specie jar containing a specimen of stony coral (Madrepora sp). From the Burges Collection.

It could be made into a tincture but was most effective as a powder.

Text on paper contents label reads ‘Catal. mat. med. p. 115. No. 57. Madrepora.’

Pomet, in his Compleat History of Druggs, says that coral is ‘cooling, drying and binding; strengthens the Heart, Stomach and Liver, absorbs Acidities, purifies the Blood, resists the Plague, and the Force of putrid and malignant Fevers; stops Fluxes of the Belly, and is profitable in the Gonorrhoea and Whites.’