# Hartshorn

**Cornu cervi**

**Known today as.** The antlers of the red deer, rasped, burnt, or distilled.

Kind: Animal

## What was it used for?

Burnt, as an absorbent; distilled, as spirit and salt of hartshorn for fainting.

## What does modern science say?

Spirit of hartshorn was ammonia, the smelling salts of later centuries; salt of hartshorn is still baker’s ammonia.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **ammonium carbonate**: 
- **ammonia**: 

**Mechanism.** The ammonia vapour stings the nose and provokes the reflex of a gasp and a quickened pulse, which is all that smelling salts do for a faint.

**Dose.** The vapour burns the airway in quantity; the salt by mouth is caustic.

**Standing.** Ammonia inhalants are still sold, and used by athletes; no evidence that they help a concussion, and some that they hide it.

## Sources

- Culpeper, N. (1653). *Pharmacopœia Londinensis*.
- McCrory, P. (2006). “Smelling salts.” *British Journal of Sports Medicine* 40.

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*Hartshorn.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-09-25. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/hartshorn

Historical description, not medical advice.