Lapis lazuli, pills of

Statema, B. C. P.

Compound

Lapis lazuli, pills of

Pillole di lapide lazuli

Known today as: The blue stone lapis lazuli, finely powdered, compounded in pills with scammony, black hellebore, and agaric.
Kind: Compound
Constituents: lapis lazuli, helleborin and helleborein, scammonin, and 2 more
Poisoning: The drastic resins
In the Canale glossary: On the Manner of Discerning and Healing the Bewitched, Appendix A: Part Three, Chapter 4: Stronger Purgatives and Compound Medicines

Revised October 3, 2026: Checked against its sources, each read in full, in part, or in its abstract. Version 1, first published September 25, 2026.

Caution. Hazardous in some form or dose; see the modern assessment below.

Lapis lazuli, pills of: what did Canale use it for?

Among the pills commended for melancholy (ch. 4).

Lapis lazuli, pills of: what does modern science say?

Scammony and black hellebore are drastic purgatives; the stone itself was held to purge melancholy.

Lapis lazuli, pills of: is it poisonous?

Yes, in some form or dose. Its poisoning is the drastic resins: One to four hours. Historical description, not medical advice; in a poisoning, call a poison centre.

Pharmacognosy & Toxicology

Constituents

lapis lazulifive drachms, powdered and washed
helleborin and helleboreinfrom the black hellebore
scammonin ChEMBL
agaric acid (agaricin)
epithymum, cloves, sal gemmae

Mechanism

A melancholy pill: lapis lazuli with black hellebore, scammony, agaric, epithymum, and polypody in a mass of hiera picra. Culpeper: “It purgeth melancholly very violently.”

Toxic dose

A violent purge; black hellebore is poisonous in large doses.

Syndrome

The drastic resins

Standing

Obsolete. Burton lists pills de lapide lazulo among the solid purges of melancholy, and reports Crato’s verdict that lapis lazuli and both hellebores “are no better than poison.”

Burton, R. (1621). The Anatomy of Melancholy, part 2, sect. 4. Read in part · the text read
Culpeper, N. (1653). Pharmacopoeia Londinensis, “Pilulae de Lapide Lazuli.” Read in part · the text read

Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.

What Medicine Makes of It

Melancholy and the DemonThe black bile, the devil’s bath, and depression.

In Their Own Words

The College's Pills of Lapis Lazuli, as Culpeper gives them, are of washed lapis lazuli in powder with epithymum, polypody, agaric, scammony and black hellebore roots, among other things.

“Take of Lapis Lazuli in powder and well washed, five drams, Epithymum, Polypodium, Agarick, of each an ounce, Scamony, black Hellebore roots”

Nicholas Culpeper, The Complete Herbal, The College's pills, 'Pilulæ de Lapide Lazuli'. London: Thomas Kelly, 17, Paternoster Row, MDCCCL (Project Gutenberg eBook #49513). The text, read in part

Each passage is quoted from the text named, which the press fetched and read, and was checked word for word against a fresh copy of it; the link opens that copy. Passages are given as printed, without the editors’ footnote numbers, and with words broken across lines joined.

The Recipe

The recipe: 4 ingredients, each linked to its entry. For Club members. Create a free account or sign in.

Sources

[28] Culpeper, N. (1653). Pharmacopœia Londinensis, or, The London Dispensatory [the Royal College of Physicians’ pharmacopoeia in English, with Culpeper’s commentary]. London: Peter Cole. Text Creation Partnership edition A35381. Read in part · the text read

The British Pharmaceutical Codex (1911). London: Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. Monographs as transcribed at Henriette’s Herbal Homepage, henriettes-herb.com. Read in full · the text read

Verification

Checked

October 1, 2026, and October 3, 2026

Passes

Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
Every source read, in full, in part, or in its abstract, and every sentence checked against what was read (October 3, 2026)

Sources

4 cited: 1 read in full, 3 read in part.

Corrections

None were needed.

What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.

Cite This Entry

Version 1 · first published September 25, 2026 · last revised October 3, 2026

Chicago: “Lapis lazuli, pills of.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 3, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/lapis-lazuli-pills-of.
MLA: “Lapis lazuli, pills of.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 3 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/lapis-lazuli-pills-of. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
APA: Lapis lazuli, pills of. (2026, October 3). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/lapis-lazuli-pills-of

Download for Zotero, EndNote, or Mendeley: BibTeX · RIS

Club members keep entries on a shelf with private notes, print the plates as cards, and receive an entry by email each week. Create a free account before January 1, 2027 and all of it is yours for good. About the Club