Jonathan Goddard

One 17th century recipe instructed the apothecary to break dried human bones into pieces, place them in an airtight container, and gradually heat them, producing a mixture of liquid, oil, and volatile salts.

the recommended dose was only a few drops which was probably just as well because apparently it smelled terrible what a surprise and this brings us back to king charles ii of england who if you remember was the son of king charles i the deposed king during the english civil war who was also relieved of his own head During his years in exile in France, Charles II had developed an enthusiasm for chemistry and experimental medicine, and when he eventually found his way back onto the throne, he established his own laboratory at Whitehall, where he tinkered with preparations and distillations.

One of the remedies that became closely associated with him was a distilled substance usually remembered as the king's drops.

Its history is slightly messy because different recipes circulated under similar names, and exactly what Charles purchased isn't completely clear.

There was always somewhere for the blame to go.

But during the 17th and 18th centuries, European medicine was slowly changing.

Understanding of chemistry and anatomy began altering ideas about how the human body worked, and ideas like using mumia began to fall out of favor, at least with those tied to the intellectual world.

By the early 18th century, you can see the shift quite clearly.