FIG. 4.
Roman mortars of stone are much rarer, and the one depicted in Fig. [4] is a unique specimen, and was with little doubt at one time used for pharmaceutical purposes. Composed of stone, with a solid square base, it stands about twelve inches high, and is about eight inches broad. The notches at the corners are evidently intended for fixing it down on a wooden table or slab, to keep it steady when being used for pounding or breaking up hard substances. Closely akin to mortars were the querns or small mills used for grinding purposes from the Roman period. In shape they somewhat resembled the mortar, but were covered in at the top, having a hole in the centre through which the pestle was worked. They were made of stone and wood. A beautiful example of a wooden quern is depicted in Fig. [5].[8] It stands thirteen inches high, and is made of very hard wood. It is an exquisite specimen of the turner’s art, some of the side mouldings being of great delicacy, no thicker than a fine needle, yet perfectly true in every particular. The pestle was worked through the hole in the centre of the cover. These wooden querns were used during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
FIG. 5.
There is little doubt that marble succeeded stone as a material for making mortars, and this brings us down to mediæval times, when the apothecaries, combining the practice of medicine and pharmacy, became wielders of the pestle.
The value of the mortar as a pharmaceutical implement was recognised by these early practitioners, and was given the most prominent position in their shops, and so the pestle and mortar became a symbol or trade sign of pharmacy.
