Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine
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The use of mummy as a drug was widespread in Europe from the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries, and its employment lingered on for a hundred years later. Its supposed virtue was originally based upon the medicinal properties of natural bitumen obtained from the Dead Sea and elsewhere. During the Middle Ages mummy was obtained from embalmed human bodies-in Egypt-which were believed to have been prepared with bitumen. ⋯ The use of mummy in medicine did not finally become obsolete until the latter part of the eighteenth century. The supplies of mummy sold to apothecaries in Europe were first obtained from genuine Egyptian mummies, but when it became difficult to procure these, spurious substitutes were made from recently dead bodies which were medicated by the purveyors. Desiccated bodies from North Africa, and Guanche mummies from the Canary Islands, were also exported to Europe and sold to the apothecaries.