Mummy Powder as Medicine
During the Renaissance, European elites believed that ground-up mummies from Egypt had powerful healing properties. Apothecaries sold “mummia”—a fine brown powder made from crushed bones, linen wrappings, and embalming resins—as a cure for epilepsy, internal bleeding, and aging.
The demand led to a black market in grave robbing and fake mummies made from criminals or animals. Ironically, the actual embalming chemicals were often toxic, and ingesting them caused more problems than they solved. By the 18th century, people finally realized that eating the dead wasn’t a miracle cure—it was just morbid.
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