Editing Unicorn (section)

==== Alicorn ====
{{Main article|Unicorn horn}}
The horn itself and the substance it was made of was called '''alicorn''', and it was believed that the horn holds magical and medicinal properties. The [[Danish people|Danish]] physician [[Ole Worm]] determined in 1638 that the alleged alicorns were the tusks of narwhals.<ref>{{cite book|title=Mythical creatures|author=Linda S Godfrey|publisher=Chelsea House Publishers|year=2009|page=28|isbn=978-0-7910-9394-8}}</ref> Such beliefs were examined wittily and at length in 1646 by Sir [[Thomas Browne]] in his ''[[Pseudodoxia Epidemica]]''.<ref>{{cite book
|last =Browne
|first =Thomas
|author-link = Thomas Browne
|title = Pseudodoxia Epidemica
|year =1646
|chapter = Book 3. Chapter 23.
|url = http://penelope.uchicago.edu/pseudodoxia/pseudo323.html}}</ref>

False alicorn powder, made from the tusks of [[narwhal]]s or horns of various animals, was sold in Europe for medicinal purposes as late as 1741.<ref>{{cite book|title=Exotic Zoology|url=https://archive.org/details/exoticzoologyill0000leyw|url-access=registration|author=Willy Ley|year=1962|publisher=Viking Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/exoticzoologyill0000leyw/page/20 20–22]|oclc=4049353}}</ref> The alicorn was thought to cure many diseases and have the ability to detect poisons, and many physicians would make "cures" and sell them. Cups were made from alicorn for kings and given as a gift; these were usually made of [[ivory]] or [[walrus]] ivory. Entire horns were very precious in the Middle Ages and were often really the tusks of narwhals.<ref>{{cite book|author=Shepard, Odell|title=The Lore of the Unicorn|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/etc/lou/index.htm|publisher=London, Unwin and Allen|year=1930|isbn=978-1-4375-0853-6}}</ref>