because it wasn’t until 1762 that a government commission was undertaken to see what they could do about it. It was decreed that signs had to be laid or mounted flat against buildings, which is why most shops and restaurants have signs like that now. Pubs proved to be an exception to the rule – luckily for the Leaky Cauldron!
Of course, the unicorn that was used to signpost the apothecary’s shop wasn’t real – but its horn was. Except for the fact that it was actually the tusk of a narwhal.
Narwhals are whales and are known as ‘the unicorns of the sea’ on account of the spiral pattern on their tusk and their rather elegant physical appearance (somewhere between a dolphin and a whale).
These ‘unicorn horns’ were rumoured to have unique medicinal powers – from curing leprosy to being a potent aphrodisiac. But most intriguingly, they were considered to be a universal antidote to poison. Right up until the 1780s, the French royal family had unicorn horn (in the form of a narwhal tusk) dipped into their drinks to proof the drink against poison.
Accordingly, the tusks were worth huge amounts of money and carried a lot of status. Queen Elizabeth I had two, one of which was part of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. From today’s perspective, the idea of having a unicorn-horn cure might seem naïve, but even now most people don’t know how their medicines work, or how they are chemically composed. In that sense, to the majority of people, taking unicorn horn would not have been that different to taking most medicines today – you take it, hope for the best and don’t think twice about it when you get better.
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