Lumbric: Alum: UST
Lumbric: Alum: UST
- Description
- This blown and molded square glass bottle has a narrow neck, a flared lip, and a baked enamel cartouche surrounded by a floral arrangement. The label is marked in black Lumbric Alum UST and the alchemical symbol for Spirits. Lumbricor is dried and pounded earthworms, alum is potassium aluminum sulfate, and ustum is Latin for heated. This jar would have contained a spirits solution of heated alum and earthworms, which was often used as an emetic, astringent, or diuretic.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- bottle
- Other Terms
- bottle; Pharmaceutical Container
- Physical Description
- glass (overall material)
- paint (overall material)
- ID Number
- 1991.0664.0424
- catalog number
- M-05573
- accession number
- 1991.0664
- collector/donor number
- SAP 285
- catalog number
- 1991.0664.0424
- Credit Line
- Gift of American Pharmaceutical Association and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company
- subject
- Pharmacy
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Medicine
- Art
- Health & Medicine
- European Apothecary
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
Nominate this object for photography.
Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online.
If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions.