Ear candling
Among the mysterious artifacts in our collection we can mention a 10-cm-tall wooden cone with concave base, with no data on original context of use and means of acquisition. Such artifacts have usually ended up in the museum from pharmacies nationalized in 1949, have not been published before, and the inventory ledger only records brief descriptions. We have thus turned to the expertise of practicing pharmacists, namely to a Facebook group that reunites such specialists from Romania. They have kindly clarified the function of this item: such cones were used in modelling ear candles, employed in the (medically not recommended) treatment of ear inflammation, hearing troubles, headaches and the removal of ear wax. The base concavity prevented wood deformation during sterilization.
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