A snail full...

Authors
Peter Topley
Issue
11
Page
4

The College of Surgeons, in the mid 17th century during the time of the Commonwealth, apparently still persisted in using antiquated measurements for the dispensing of medicine. One such unit of capacity was the “cochlearium”, which meant “a spoonful”, the spoon in question being that used to extract snails from their shells (cochlea is the Latin for snail).