Abstract: Earth science was not taught in schools in the seventeenth century. Geology began in principle with Steno’s Prodromus of 1669, which reflected tendencies in the European curiosity about nature, but had little contemporary impact. As a child in busy Protestant Hamburg, Otto Sperling was influenced by Renaissance ideas in the early 1600s and investigated plants with his family’s encouragement; he continued in pharmacy and later in medicine in Leiden. As a student he visited the relatively strong medicine milieu in Copenhagen and had the opportunity to sail as a participant in King Christian IV’s official visit to Bergen. Venturing into southern Norway’s mountainous landscapes, he studied plants, animals and rocks. Sperling’s nature studies continued on journeys in northern and southern Europe and he graduated as Doctor medicinae in Padova in 1627. En route towards England, his ship was driven to Norway, where the locals persuaded him to settle as a physician. An encounter with the Danish nobleman Corfitz Ulfeldt (1606–64) took Sperling to some of the highest medical posts and later, during Denmark–Norway’s decline, dragged him into the political maelstrom. Sperling’s autobiography, written in his late sixties in a Copenhagen prison, is testimony to the importance of Earth science to Sperling’s philosophy and performance as a doctor.

Abstract: In around 1670 purging mineral waters were discovered on the western slopes of Shooter’s Hill near Woolwich, to the east of London. They were promoted through an anonymous broadsheet, a single copy of which is held by the British Library. The probable author of this has been identified as Nathaniel Hodges, a physician who remained in London treating the sick during the plague year of 1665. Epsom Salts were produced at Shooter’s Hill around 1700 and undercut in price those from Epsom and Acton to the west of London. The waters continued to be used by local people for the following 200 years but never achieved national fame, and the source had disappeared by the 1920s. The waters were derived from thin sandy horizons within the London Clay Formation and were characterized by high concentrations of Mg and SO 4 . The mineralogy of the clays suggests that pyrite oxidation in the weathered zone forms acid solutions leading to the dissolution of carbonates, particularly dolomite. Varying concentrations of dolomite account for variations in the Mg content of London Clay groundwaters and for the distribution of a number of historic purging waters around London.

Abstract: Since the Middle Ages Milan obtained its water supply satisfactorily from shallow wells. Significant problems developed during the nineteenth century, however, prompting the Lombard Institute to announce the Cagnola Award for a three-year study project to analyse the water both chemically and physically and to remedy the problem of pollution. The award was made to Angelo Pavesi (1830–96), a chemist, and Ermenegildo Rotondi (1845–1915), a civil engineer. They concluded that cemetery wastewater should be prevented from entering the city and that the number of deep artesian wells should be increased. Some years later, another problem regarding hygiene and water supply arose and it seemed doubtful whether the principal hospital of the city could fulfil the new hygiene requirements. Pietro Canetta (1836–1903) studied the records of the main hospital’s water supply and disposal from 1457, demonstrating that it could be regarded as a model for the supply of good-quality water and for wastewater disposal without polluting the city. Since 1906 all of Milan’s drinking water has been derived from groundwater; untreated wastewater continued to be discharged into rivers until 2004 but since then all water has been treated.

Abstract: Italian physicians have been interested in geology since the fifteenth century or earlier, with leading figures carrying out fundamental and enlightening studies in both fields of competence. Refined cultured men including Bernardino Ramazzini, Antonio Vallisneri, Tommaso Antonio Catullo, Carlo Gemmellaro, Leopoldo Pilla, Giuseppe Meneghini, Gaetano Giorgio Gemmellaro and Arcangelo Scacchi, in addition to the introduction of reasoning and basic concepts for the advancement of Earth sciences, conducted major studies in the medical field, proving once again the holistic interests of Italian intellectuals. Following the publication of Principles of Geology by Charles Lyell, some scientists were fascinated by the geosciences, carrying out both medical observations and geological studies, and contributing significantly to the development of modern geology. The biographies and works of some leading Italian physicians illustrate their scientific activity in the study of stratigraphy, geomorphology, palaeontology and volcanology, with acknowledgement internationally. These Italian scientists contributed to the political unification of Italy, actively participating in scientific and political discussion, and fulfilling government aims. They contributed to the foundation of the Geological Society of Italy, one of the oldest scientific fellowships in Italy.

Abstract: William Hunter (1718–83) and James Parkinson (1755–1824) were both London-based surgeons with a passion for palaeontology, willing to advocate that the extinction of species had occurred when this viewpoint was seen as controversially arguing for a ‘flawed Creator’. Although there is no evidence that they ever corresponded, let alone met, they had mutual connections, such as Jean André de Luc (1728–1817) and William’s youngest brother, John Hunter (1728–93). More importantly, they are united by their shared interest in fossils, the expansion of both their collections through the great Leverian Auction, and the desire to write the first introductory explanatory text on fossils at a time when fossils were only beginning to be accepted as the remains of extinct organisms. This paper looks at the connections between these individuals during a period of great intellectual change, and how Parkinson’s magnum opus ‘Organic Remains’ – very much the prototype for today’s pan-collection popular books on fossils or dinosaurs – subsequently influenced Hunter’s collections in the nineteenth century, part of their posthumous mutual impact on each other’s palaeontological legacy.

Abstract: From ancient times, many efforts have been made to find a substance with the capacity to neutralize the toxic substances or poisons that can affect the human body. Such poisons of animal, vegetable or mineral origin enter the body through the skin, digestive or respiratory systems. Many simple or complex substances have been investigated. Estorch Siqués was a multitalented personality interested in literature, public health affairs and practical medicine; he was also a businessman who publicized and sold his own products. His ‘magnes venenorum’ is another example of the search for a universal antidote during the second half of the nineteenth century.

Abstract: The concept of the professional changed markedly from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century. The contrasting careers of Peter Martin Duncan, father, and Cecil Cooke Duncan, son, provide a vignette of these changes in two people who were both actively engaged in geological and medical activities. Peter Martin trained as a doctor and practised for some 20 years. He later became Professor of Geology at Kings College, London and both Secretary and President of the Geological Society. He was a prolific author of both learned articles and books on science for the general public. In his time it was acceptable to combine all these roles into a single career. Cecil trained as a chemist. His career was as the public analyst in Worcester at a time when these posts were becoming professionalized. He contributed to control of health risks in the county. To him geology and natural history were serious leisure pastimes rather than part of his professionally defined career. Father and son therefore show the move from the time when there were fluid disciplinary boundaries to one where a single professional discipline defined and bounded working life and other areas of study became a matter for non-working hours.

Abstract: After studying at medical schools in Reims and Paris, Victor Lemoine (1837–97) practised and taught medicine in his native city of Reims in eastern France before moving to Paris in 1889. However, his main interest was vertebrate palaeontology. He is particularly remembered for his work on the Paleocene vertebrate fauna from the Cernay Conglomerate, a fossiliferous formation that crops out at Berru hill, a short distance from Reims. From the 1870s to his death in 1897, Lemoine published a large number of papers on this fossil assemblage, which at that time was the oldest-known Tertiary vertebrate fauna in Europe, concentrating on choristoderes, giant birds and mammals. Diverging interpretations of the choristodere material resulted in conflict with the Belgian palaeontologist Louis Dollo. Lemoine’s work on Gastornis was marred by the erroneous inclusion of non-avian elements into his skeletal reconstruction of that giant bird; the flawed reconstruction hindered for many years the recognition of the real affinities of Gastornis . Lemoine devoted particular attention to the diverse archaic mammals from Cernay. He emphasized their primitive and generalized characters, which made it difficult to refer them to modern orders. His medical background led him to apply innovative approaches, such as palaeohistology and palaeoneurology, to his studies on the fossils from Cernay. Lemoine’s discoveries soon attracted the attention of American palaeontologists working on fossil vertebrates of similar geological age, and both E.D. Cope and H.F. Osborn visited him in Reims to examine his collections. In 1889, Lemoine moved to Paris to be closer to major scientific institutions and to devote himself exclusively to palaeontology. After Röntgen’s discovery of X-rays in 1895 he quickly realized their potential for palaeontological investigations, but his untimely death at the age of 60 prevented him from developing this new approach more fully. Despite the fact that he never held an official position in a palaeontological institution, Lemoine’s medical background certainly helped him to tackle interesting palaeobiological questions and his contribution to that field of research was significant.

Abstract: In antiquity, therapeutic empiricism attributed medicinal properties to animal products, plants, minerals and metals, including the soil of specific geographical locations. The therapeutic use of certain earths and metals is thoroughly documented in the works of Hippocrates, Dioscorides and Galen and was still practised in the eighteenth century by eminent physicians such as Sir Hans Sloane. Mercury and arsenical compounds have also been widely used since antiquity, the latter finding application in our times in the successful treatment of acute promyelocytic leukaemia.

Abstract: This paper presents the scientific investigation of three Lemnian sphragides ( terra sigillata , stamped earth), a famed medicinal clay in antiquity, dated to the sixteenth–seventeenth centuries, and presently in the Museum for the History of Pharmacy, University of Basel. The three specimens are compared with clays from the purported locality of its extraction, at Kotsinas, NE Lemnos, Greece. The study suggests a local origin for the Basel samples; it also demonstrates, for the first time, that the three Lemnian sphragides have a significant antibacterial effect against Staphylococcus aureus , a common Gram-positive pathogen, but have no such effect against Pseudomonas aeruginosa , a Gram-negative microorganism. Clay samples from the purported locality of extraction showed no antibacterial effect against S. aureus . Subsequent analysis with ultra-performance liquid-chromatography mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) revealed the presence of organic constituents in one sphragis which were absent from a sample of modern clay. A fungal secondary metabolite is proposed here as the active ingredient but other factors may also play a role. The ongoing investigation into the bioactivity of some medicinal clays might aid in the re-evaluation of Belon’s statement included at the start of this paper, namely, that the Lemnian earth worked only because people in the past wished it to work.

Abstract: Lapidaries, or books on stones, formed a historical literary genre which compiled information on the nature and properties of various stones together with their therapeutic applications. One of the mythical stones described in these lapidaries is the Cock Stone or Alectorius. For the most part, authors agree upon both its origins inside the body and its therapeutic uses, although opinion differs as to the exact organ from which it was obtained. It may represent a biliary calculus. The healing properties cited for the Cock Stone are, at first sight, unrelated. However, when viewed in the light of modern physiological understanding, the pharmacological properties ascribed to Alectorius may be related to the effects of parasympathomimetic substances.

Abstract: ‘Serpent stones’ have been credited with medical efficacy since antiquity. Likely having their root in ancient traditions from India, accounts are now widespread across much of the world. Serpent stones are known by many names and descriptions of their appearance and medical uses are diverse; however, they commonly have a legendary association with serpents and are most frequently considered efficacious in the alexipharmic treatment of snakebite. This work presents and details five broad categories of serpent stone: a round white stone (thought to be extracted from the head of a dragon), a smooth lens-shaped black stone (purported to be taken from the head of a snake, but artificially manufactured of burnt bone or horn), ammonites (the fossilized shells of extinct cephalopods), glass or vitreous paste in the form of rings or beads, and serpentinite.

Abstract: The medicinal uses of the snakestone bead within the British Isles are surveyed and considered for the first time. The snakestone beads of the British Isles – often annular beads formed of glass or paste, but also other items similar in form – were employed against a variety of ailments, including several of the most deadly childhood diseases of the nineteenth century: teething, whooping cough and ague. In addition, they were used in the treatment of livestock and as a remedy for eye diseases. The eighteenth century saw the snakestone beads conflated with the hag-stone and employed as an amulet against witches and evil spirits.

Abstract: This chapter presents one case history – the transfer of the name and virtues of ‘eagle-stones’ to Andean minerals and terebratulid brachiopods such as Clarkeia antisiensis . Eagle-stones, an ancient remedy of Asian origin, were used in early modern Europe to prevent abortion and as a charm to assist obstetric delivery. In the eighteenth century eagle-stones were the subject of what G. Baronti ( Tra bambini e acque sporche Immersioni nella collezione di amuleti di Giuseppe Bellucci , Morlacchi, Perugia, 2008) calls the process of folklorization of European learned medicine, becoming a ‘superstition’ and a popular remedy of medical lore. Based on secondary bibliography and documents from the Archivo de Indias in Seville, the paper discusses the uses of eagle-stones in Spain and Spanish America in connection to the texts published, written or translated in the Iberian Peninsula (lapidaries, early modern medical books). The last section proposes clues to analyse the expansion of the trade in eagle-stones to Spanish America, to finally survey the references to ‘eagle-stones’ in Latin American popular medicine of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Eagle-stones are inscribed not only in the longue-durée but also in the intricate networks of commerce.

Abstract: Ctesias (fifth century BC) recounted contemporary Persian beliefs of white Indian animals which had a white horn, black in the centre and flaming red at the pointed tip, projecting from their forehead. Reinforced by classical and medieval writers, travellers, biblical warrant and trade in narwhal tusk, the unicorn became firmly established in European mythology. Increasing popularity as an alexipharmic, prophylactic and counter-poison through the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries led to rising demand and rapidly inflating prices. Debate raged as to which was the ‘true unicorn’ ( Unicornum Verum ), narwhal tusks or mammoth ivory ( Unicornu Fossile ); shavings and powders of both were incorporated into a bewildering array of medicinal mixtures while fraudulent alternatives flooding the markets required the employment of discriminatory tests. Further alternatives with supposedly similar properties included the (probably smectite) clays of Terra Sigillata Strigoniensis or Terra Silesiaca ( Unicornu Minerale ), and an alchemical preparation ( Unicornu Solare ). The supposed therapeutic application and wide range of delivery systems of all types of unicorn horn medicines are reviewed in detail for the first time. Particularly popular as an antidote in plague medicines, the use of alicorn (unicorn horn) simples declined to extinction with the increasingly empirical approach to pharmacy of the mid-eighteenth century.

Abstract: Precious stones played an important role in early modern medicine. These widespread medicinal objects could be administered in a variety of ways and, most importantly, by wearing. It is here that these medicinal jewels overlap with the famous desire of the gentry of the period to partake in opulent displays of gemstones on their person. This paper examines whether it is possible to tease apart these intersecting motivations for ornamenting the body with gemstones: was it for health or was it for beauty? The wearing of stones for cures is often found in printed material of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Britain, including Nicholas Culpeper’s famous Pharmacopoeia , but tracing records of actual medical use is complicated. Amulets and astrological sigils are an obvious source of jewellery worn for curative rather than primarily ornamental purposes, although these trod a perilous and blurred line between legitimate medicine and diabolic magic. The clearest examples are the wearing of stones with little or no aesthetic value (e.g. like the fabulous, to an extent fictional, toad-stone) which ultimately, it is argued, are of most use in determining the motivations for the wearing of medicinal stones.

Abstract: Coral features among the naturalia in the Cabinets of Curiosities in which, from the sixteenth century onwards, nobles and wealthy people exhibited their exotic riches and jewels. Petrus Hispanus ( c. 1215–77), consecrated Pope John XXI, was also a doctor. This paper surveys the importance of coral as an amulet and a medicine in Petrus Hispanus’ work within the folklore and the medical traditions of the time and in the framework of ancient lithotherapy, bringing the therapeutic use of coral into relationship with its chemical compound calcium carbonate.

Abstract: The earliest known use of lead was in the Neolithic period; by Roman times it was in widespread use, despite recognition that it could have adverse effects on human health. The early smelting processes were inefficient, giving rise to atmospheric pollution; as this reduced with modern improvements in furnace design, so pollution due to the addition of tetraethyl lead to motor fuel emerged. The military use of lead was a further source of environmental contamination, while individuals were exposed to lead from water pipes, paint and solder in food cans. Studies of lead in ice cores recovered from Greenland demonstrated a 200-fold increase in lead concentration from 800 BCE to the 1960s, with the greatest increase occurring after 1940. The isotope signatures of lead enabled the sources of environmental contamination to be determined: industrial lead was responsible throughout most of the last millennium, with lead in fuel making the greatest contribution in recent times. The human impact was demonstrated in studies of archaeological and modern skeletal lead levels. This paper explores the history of the use of lead and the development of an understanding of its toxicity, and examines its impact on human health.