Unicorn

Description

Without the knowledge and global information network we have today, medieval and later apothecaries often found it difficult to reconcile the fact and fiction of where their more exotic ingredients came from. Unicorn horn was an ancient poison antidote said to be worth its weight in gold, but in reality was the spiral tusk of the narwhal. Fossilised unicorn horn may have been mammoth tusk, or indeed any other fossilised tooth or bone.