William Jackson, FRPharmS, is a retired pharmacist and a past president
of the British Society for the History of pharmacy
|
Unicorns as illustrated in Pomet’s Compleat History of Druggs,
1712 |
The unicorn is a mythical beast that has been associated with medicine
and pharmacy for hundreds of years. It was said to resemble a horse that
had a single spirally twisted horn projecting from its forehead. Its origin
has been the subject of a great deal of speculation but I should like to
believe the story that dates it from the time of Alexander the Great (356–323
BC). It is said that his stallion, Bucephalus, wore golden horns in battle
and that this gave rise to the legend of the unicorn. Unfortunately, Bucephalus
was black and unicorns were said to be white. Another possibility is that
their existence could be based on early reports of the
rhinoceros, though belief in unicorns was still prevalent when this beast
was relatively well known. There were also reports of an animal called
the monoceros and, although this was thought by some to be another name
for the unicorn, others believed it to be the rhinoceros, and yet others
considered it to be a species distinct from either of these.
Medieval bestiaries
Descriptions of the unicorn are to be found in bestiaries (books that
contained illustrations and descriptions of many species of
animals, both real and imaginary) of the 12th and 13th centuries. The
unicorn is unusual among the mythical animals in that people still
believed in
its existence up to and after the Renaissance. One manuscript said that
it was sufficiently fierce to kill an elephant by stabbing it with its
horn, and a drawing showing the two animals engaged in combat depicts
the unicorn as being considerably larger than the elephant. According
to another
story, the unicorn was so swift that hunters were unable to catch it,
except by using a subterfuge — a young virgin was sent into the forest where
the unicorn was known to exist and, when it saw her, it would leap into
her lap and the hunters could then capture it.
The monoceros also had a single horn, up to four feet in length. It was
larger than the unicorn, with feet resembling those of an
elephant and a tail like a stag. It was possible to kill one, but none
had ever been taken alive. Some French bestiaries considered the unicorn
and monoceros to be a single species. The price of the horn
The sums quoted for the price of unicorn horn vary considerably, and
the problem of estimating its value is compounded by the differing
dates and
by the varying currencies that are quoted. However, there can be no doubt
that, although the price varied from time to time, it was never cheap.
In 1609, Thomas Decker speaks of the horn of a unicorn as being worth “half
a city” and a Florentine physician observed that it was sold by the
apothecaries for £24 per ounce. In 1553, one belonging to the King
of France was valued at £20,000 and the value of one specimen in
Dresden in the same century was estimated at 75,000 thalers.
Obviously, unicorn horn was not something that was normally owned or
used by poor people. It was its alexipharmic properties that were thought
to
be of particular use, and the fact that rich and powerful people were
in the greatest danger of being poisoned ensured that there were always
sufficient
customers with enough money to maintain its high price. Considerable
amounts would also be paid by collectors of curiosities for particularly
fine specimens. Medicinal virtues
Tin-glazed earthenware pill tile bearing the arms of the Worshipful
Company of Apothecaries |
The first mention of the therapeutic properties of unicorn’s horn
is thought to have been by Ctesias, a Greek physician from Cnidus, who
flourished in the fifth century BC. He believed the unicorn was an Indian
wild ass that had a horn growing from its forehead. Drinking cups made
from this horn could neutralise poison and afford protection against convulsions
and epilepsy. In the middle ages it was used to cure plague, fevers and
bites from serpents and mad dogs. It was even said that poisoned wounds
could be cured merely by holding a piece of the horn close to them. Surely
we cannot fail to be impressed when we read in ‘Doctors and Doctors’ by
Graham Everitt that the unicorn was: “ … perfectly conscious
of the sanitary virtues which resided in its nasal protruberance, and
would dip its horn in the water to purify and sweeten it ere it would
drink.”
Mary Stuart (1542–87), Queen of Scots was the widow of Francis II
of France. Later she married Lord Darnley and, in 1565, gave birth to a
son who became James VI of Scotland. She had brought a piece of
unicorn’s horn from France and used it to test her food for poison.
Unfortunately it did not prevent her developing rheumatic gout and dropsy
later in life, nor did it protect her from the executioner’s axe
when she was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in 1587.
In a letter written to Monsieur Belin in October 1631 Guy Patin, the
Parisian physician, observed that he did not believe that unicorn’s
horn was of any use as protection against the pestilential disease that
was prevalent
in the city at that time, nor did it possess any of the occult properties
attributed to it.
Unicorn horn was also an ingredient in a remedy for the bite of a mad
dog that was published in 1656: “Take a handful of Box, and stamp
it, and strain it with a draught of milk, put into it a pretty quantity
of
Lobsters shell beaten to a powder, and some Unicorns horn, if you can
get it, and drink thereof and wash the wound therewith.” The
scarcity of unicorn’s horn is indicated by the phrase “if
you can get it”.
The unicorn in art and heraldry
Probably the most famous representations of the
unicorn are those that appear in a set of six tapestries in the
Museé National
du Moyen-Age, Paris. The tapestries were woven about the end of the
15th century, and found in rather poor condition in 1841 in Boussac.
Fortunately, they were purchased by the French government in 1882 and
restored. Five of them represent the senses: l’odorat (smell),
l’ouie (hearing), le goût (taste), la vue (sight) and le
toucher (touch). The final one takes its name from the words that appear
on a tent in the centre of the tapestry, “Á Mon Seul Désir
(To my one desire)”. They are superbly displayed and are
objects of great beauty.
At the other end of the artistic scale, though not without its
own naive charm, there is a polychrome charger or large dish made
from
tin-glazed
earthenware in the Bristol City Art Gallery (artist unknown) that
illustrates a unicorn with a spotted coat and a yellow mane and
tail in a landscape
with trees.
Images of the unicorn are frequently to be found in heraldry. In
the reign of James III of Scotland (1460–88) a gold, undated coin
with a value of 18 Scottish shillings was introduced. It was known
as a “unicorn”, and a smaller “half–unicorn” worth
nine shillings was also made. On one side, the shield of Scotland
was supported by a unicorn. When James VI of Scotland became James
I of
England (1603) the red dragon, one of the supporters of the Royal
Coat of Arms, was
replaced by a unicorn.
The coat of arms of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London,
founded in 1617, had two unicorns as supporters, and they can also
be seen on some armorial drug jars and on a number of delftware
pill tiles. The society’s charter was granted by James I,
and it is possible that the Scottish unicorns were adopted as a
compliment
to
the king. As well as armorial jars, the head of the unicorn was
used as a decorative motif above the cartouche of a rare drug jar
design,
probably made in the second half of the 17th century. One of these
can be seen in the Museum of London.
The Golden Unicorn Pharmacy was founded in Debrecen in Hungary,
and had a semicircular wreath of wrought iron over the door, bearing
the date 1772. In the centre of this was the figure of a prancing
unicorn
with a long horn. The furnishings of this handsome pharmacy are
now
preserved in the city’s Déri museum.
In ‘Aus alten Apotheken’ there is a photograph of the
sign of the former Klosterapotheke (Cloister pharmacy) in Rottenbuch,
Germany,
showing a
projecting unicorn’s head with a long horn, dating from circa
1750. The caption indicates that the horn could be the tusk of
a narwhal. The same book contains a photograph of a wooden drug
jar
and a chipwood
box that were containers for the prepared horn.
Narwhal tusks are also to be found in 18th
century caricatures, such as The inspection (plate III of Marriage-à-la-Mode)
by Hogarth where one can be seen in the house of Dr Misaubin (also
known as M de la Pillule). Here, it is a reference to its use as
a symbol of a quack doctor and its
alleged value as an aphrodisiac.
In contrast, Sir Henry Wellcome chose the
unicorn as the house mark of Burroughs Wellcome & Co, possibly
because it was a symbol of purity and because of its early use
as an important
antidote to poisons. The mark was designed by a Mr Scobie of the
College of Heralds, but required
several modifications before it was approved by Sir Henry and registered
in 1908. It remained
unchanged for 60 years but was updated to a sleeker version in 1968. |
William Salmon’s ‘Pharmacopoeia Londinensis
or the New London Dispensatory’ of 1678 said that although many
were dubious about the existence of the unicorn, their doubts could have
no foundation because
it was mentioned in the “holy writings”. However, the country
of its origin was dubious and Salmon mentioned a number of authorities
that quoted widely
differing places, including the West Indies, Ethiopia, Asia and the East
Indies, though he reached no conclusion about the validity of any of
these claims. Ludovicus Vartoman had described two beasts that had been
presented
to the “Great Turk” by the King of Aethiopia. Both had yellowish
horns in the middle of their foreheads, a deer’s head and cloven
hooves. Finally, he observed that the horn was the only part that was
used medicinally being “alexipharmick” (counteracting poisons) “sudorifick” (causing
sweating) “cardiack” (a cordial restorative) “antifebritick” (reducing
fevers) and “cephalick” (counteracting disorders of the head).
He added: “It potently resists Plague, Pestilence, and Poyson,
expels the Measles and Small-Pox, and cures the Falling-Sickness in Children.” The
dose to be used was 10 grains to a drachm (60 grains) or more.
In 1695, Nicholas Culpeper observed: “Uni-corns horn resists Poyson
and the Pestilence, provokes Urine, restores lost strength, brings forth
both Birth and Afterbirth.” Obviously Culpeper had no doubts about
the medicinal value of unicorn’s horn although suspicions about its
efficacy as well as its origin had been growing for some time. The phrase “restores
lost strength” is a reference to its supposed value as an aphrodisiac.
At the end of the 18th century the French physician, Pierre Pomet, dealt
with the subject at some length. He observed that the truth about unicorns
was still unknown, but described and illustrated several beasts from
which the tales about it could have been
derived. The camphur was a wild ass found in Arabia that had a horn used
to cure several diseases, especially venomous or contagious ones. The
Arabs who lived near the Red Sea knew of the pirassoupi, a hairy animal
about
the size of a mule that had two long, straight, spiral horns. These were
infused in water for six to eight hours and the resulting liquid was
drunk to cure wounds or venomous bites. This beast was probably included
despite
its possessing two horns because of the recorded use of them as an alexipharmic.
Pomet illustrated three unicorns described by Johnston in his ‘Historia
naturalis’.1 He observed, inaccurately, that there were five beasts
with a single horn and that one must be the true unicorn. These were the “Orix,
or one-horn’d wild goat”, the “one-horn’d Ox”,
the “Hart with one Horn”, the “one horned Hog” and
the “one horned Ass”. He
mentioned that the people of India made drinking vessels from the horn
of the latter, and that they freed anyone drinking from them from any sort
of deadly poison or
infection. It would seem that Pomet believed that unicorns did exist, though
he stated categorically: “I shall only say, that what we sell under
the Name of Unicorn’s Horn is the Horn of a certain Fish, by the
Islanders called Narwal, or the Sea Unicorn.” He said that
authors had ascribed almost incredible things to it, chiefly as a remedy
for poisons, plague and fevers, and the bites of serpents or mad dogs.
It was used as a cordial or restorative, shavings of it being boiled
up in a broth and coloured with a little cochineal and saffron to make
a jelly.
Pomet also noted that the narwhal, also known as the rhoar or sea unicorn,
a large fish that some reckoned to be a sort of whale, was found in the
northern seas especially along the coast of Greenland. It carried a spiral
horn at the end of its nose that could be seen in some cabinets of curiosities.
Pieces of this horn were sold in Paris as true Unicorn’s horn that
was said to have many virtues, but he could neither authorise nor contradict
these reports because he had not sufficient experience of its use. He also
wrote of
another “fish” called the sea unicorn that had been stranded
on a beach on an island near Santo Domingo. It was about 18 feet long and
had a spirally twisted horn (or tusk) that became smoother as it diminished
in circumference. This measured nine and a half feet in length. A feature
of this creature that is shown in an illustration is that on its head there
was “a Kind of Crown rais’d above the rest of the Skin, two
inches or thereabout, made in an oval Form, and ending in a Point”.
It seems highly probable that the drawing was made from a description
rather than being taken from life.
Pomet also quoted Nicolas Lemery, a
doctor of medicine, as saying that the narwhal carried a spiral horn,
five or six feet in length, with which it would attack the largest whales.
This
horn yielded a great deal of volatile salt and oil that was cordial,
sudorific and useful to resist infections and cure epilepsy. The dose
was from 10
to 40 grains. In addition, people wore it in amulets hung round the neck
to
resist infection.
By the middle of the 18th century the value of the horn as a medicine
was almost completely discredited. In 1749 John Quincy wrote: “There
are various opinions concerning this creature; but Paccius, who wrote a
whole treatise about it, takes it to be nothing but the rhinoceros; tho’ some
strenuously contend that this horn is the tooth of a fish. The strange
conceits of the medicinal virtues of this drug, are too numerous and too
ridiculous to mention here; and both this and the following are now justly
expelled the present practice.” The next preparation was Bone of
a Stag’s Heart, another ancient
remedy.
By 1836, in spite of the fact that unicorn horn had been discredited
for many years, we can still find an entry in Gray’s ‘A treatise
on pharmacology’ that reads: “NARWHAL, Unicorn fish, Monodon
vulgaris. TUSK,
unicorn’s horn, cornu unicornu, C. monoceratis. A very fine ivory:
yields blubber.” Conclusion
As with so many remedies, such as bezoar stones, powdered mummies, toads
and goat’s blood, that had been used from ancient times, unicorn’s
horn continued to enjoy a reputation as a powerful medicinal agent for
a
considerable time after doubts were raised about its value. Together with
many other
discredited animal products it was still used after the middle of the 18th
century, though by this time it was well known that it was
really the horn of the narwhal and, like other forms of ivory, was of little
use as a curative agent.
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1. Johnston was a physician practicing medicine in Leiden. The Dutch
edition of his book, published in 1660, had one more plate (illustrating
a sea
unicorn) than the Latin one. |
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Pharmaceutical Journal