Migrating Minerals

Biogenic and abiogenic mineral materials formed a surprisingly diverse and significant component of the early modern materia medica; used singly and in complex compound recipes, they were employed prophylactically and in a wide array of treatments. Often credited with alexipharmic (anti-poison) and cordial (strengthening) properties, there was a brisk import trade in items such as bezoar stones from India, terra sigillata from Poland, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, emeralds from Egypt, red coral from the Mediterranean, fossil sharks’ teeth from Malta, and ‘unicorn horn’ from Germany. Jews’ stones from the Lebanon were used to treat urogenital disorders. Amber from the Baltic coast was perhaps the most versatile material; used amuletically, topically and internally as a Galenic simple, it was also processed to produce salts, oils and tinctures in the Paracelsian tradition.

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Chris Duffin obtained a Ph.D. in Vertebrate Palaeontology at University College London. He has published extensively (over 300 papers) on a wide range of fossil groups but is particularly concerned with sharks and their allies. He co-authored the Handbook of Paleoichthyology Volume 3D . Chondrichthyes. Paleozoic Elasmobranchii: Teeth (2010) and is currently a Scientific Associate at the Natural History Museum and a Research Associate at Bristol University. His edited volumes include A History of geology and Medicine (2013), Geology and Medicine: Historical Connections (2017), Amber in the History of Medicine (2017), Collection in the Space of Culture (2019), The Medical Legacy of Mafra (2020) and Insights into Portuguese Medical History (2022). Chris received the Palaeontological Association’s Mary Anning Award for outstanding contributions to palaeontology in 2011, and the Marsh Award for Palaeontology in 2018. He also holds a second PhD, this time in the history of medicine from Kingston University.