Examination of Officinal Medicines

The author cites travelogues by Pietro della Valle and others regarding the sourcing of mummies. ...as noted in the Oriental Itinerary, page 158, and by Pietro della Valle, page 103, these are usually unearthed from the sand and brought to us. It remains uncertain by what kind of disease these individuals perished—whether by plague or poison—nor does it truly matter by what means they were preserved, whether with Aloe and Myrrh, or with cedar resin, or asphalt. Nevertheless, they are kept as sacred objects among the rarer items of the apothecaries' shops. They are not only mixed in their raw substance with other ingredients to create a powder against falls original: "pulvere contra casum," a common remedy for internal bruising after a fall, and in the "Great Immortality" original: "Athanasia magna," a complex herbal electuary, the Apostolic plaster, the Betony plaster, and Croll’s styptic; but there is also prepared from them a certain Essence of True Mummy, or an extract, which among other things enters into the "Greater Opiate Laudanum" of Quercetanus Joseph Duchesne, a famous Paracelsian physician. To what good? Read Renodæus’s Dispensatory Jean de Renou, author of a standard pharmaceutical text.

§. 4.

Truly, he who does not loathe Mummy might as well love human fat mixed with bone marrow, the afterbirth of a woman’s first-born, and the Spirit prepared therefrom; or even the Spirit and Water of the human brain, the Spirit and volatile Salt of blood, of urine, of the human skull, the oil of the human skull, the gelatin of the human skull, and in powder form, the skull of a man from the gallows original: "cranium patibuli," specifically the skull of a criminal left to weather on a gibbet, highly prized in "sympathetic" medicine, both prepared and charred, the magistery of the human skull, and the prepared and charred bones of the microcosm term: microcosm; a common Renaissance term for the human body, viewed as a miniature reflection of the universe. Nor should a belt made of human skin displease you; as far as I am concerned, you are welcome to it. The cannibalism original: "Anthropophagia" of the Scythians, Americans, and other most cruel nations is condemned by all; yet who would believe that more civilized people are so monstrous that, out of a desire for base gain, they seek out the entrails and corpses of thieves and robbers from the hand of the executioner (I will not say the Anatomist)? Certainly, a dog hardly ever tastes a dead dog, and, what I have wondered at more, it will not even touch a cooked heart. What, then, compels us to appear more ferocious than the beasts themselves? Are there not other things ready at hand which are able to take the place of those just recounted? Are there not balsamic substances, those that dissolve clotted blood, those that aid in childbirth, and remedies for the head and epilepsy—horns and bones—collected sufficiently, indeed abundantly, in the pharmacies original: "Pharmacopoliis"? What need is there for a human being to be torn apart, roasted, and boiled down?

§. 5.

And yet, there are also other animals to be mentioned here in the second place...