Emily Dickinson Lexicon

HARTS'HORN, n.

1. The horn of the hart or male deer. The scrapings or raspings of this horn are medicinal, and used in decoctions, ptisans, &c. Hartshorn jelly is nutritive and strengthening. Hartshorn calcined by a strong and long continued heat, is changed into a white earth, which is employed in medicine as an absorbent. The salt of hartshon is a powerful sudorific, and hartshorn yields also a pungent volatile spirit. Encyc.
2. The jelly of hartshorn is simply gelatine; the earth remaining after calcination, is phosphate of lime; the salt and spirit of hartshorn are muriate of ammonia, with a little animal oil. Parr. Hartshorn plantain, a species of Plantago.