Usnea Cranii Humani, c1745-1807

Description

Glass specie jar containing a paper-wrapped specimen of the lichen Usnea florida from a human skull. Tied in a silk bag and applied to the affected area, it was used to stop nosebleeds. From the Burges Collection.

Pomet, in his Compleat History of Druggs, says that ‘Druggists send to foreign Countries, especially Germany, these Skulls cover’d with Moss, to put into the Composition of the sympathetick Ointment, which Crollius describes in his Royal Chymist, and is very available in the Cure of the Falling-Sickness.’