History Main / ApothecaryAlligator

The workshop of a wizard, alchemist, or apothecary is never complete without a stuffed crocodile or alligator hanging from the ceiling. Occasionally, another kind of reptile, usually some kind of large snake or, in more exotic settings, a monster like a basilisk, might appear in addition to or instead of the traditional crocodilian. What it's actually ''for'' [[CowTools is anybody's guess]].

-->There was a large crystal ball with a crack in it, an astrolabe with several bits missing, a rather scuffed octogram on the floor, and a stuffed alligator hanging from the ceiling. A stuffed alligator is absolutely standard equipment in any properly-run magical establishment. This one looked as though it hadn't enjoyed it much.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Frequently mentioned, and {{Lampshad|eHanging}}ed as a occupational necessity. Every proper wizard has a stuffed alligator hanging from the ceiling of his laboratory, even if there aren't any alligators naturally in the area. No one, ''especially'' the wizards, is sure why[[note]]Though never brought up in books in which the term is used, a witch would probably consider this to be a form of Boffo used to establish one's credentials[[/note]].

* ''Literature/TheWitcher'': The wizard Istredd has a stuffed crocodile in his study alongside several smaller animals.

%%* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The (Third) Doctor]] had a alligator hanging from the ceiling of his laboratory at UNIT. %%Incomplete example: Which story was this in? It certainly wasn't a regular feature.

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* ''Series/{{Outlander}}'' in the episode "Not in Scotland Anymore", Clare enters Master Raymond's apothecary, where a [[https://twitter.com/OutlanderRewind/status/726753548151623684/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E726782398461923328&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Foutlanderbts.com%2Fgary-steele-photo-qa-master-raymonds%2F stuffed]] [[https://media.architecturaldigest.com/photos/5706e210b2d72bc242ccecb6/master/w_800%2Cc_limit/Outlander-second-season-set-design_07.jpg alligator]] is suspended from the ceiling.

The workshop of a wizard, alchemist, or apothecary is never complete without a stuffed crocodile or alligator hanging from the ceiling. What it's actually ''for'' [[CowTools is anybody's guess]].

** ''Literature/TheLightFantastic'' (1986): A preserved crocodile, smelling strongly of camphor, hangs in a wizard's workshop.
** In the same book, a magic shop also briefly displays a stuffed crocodile "with a lifelike expression of extreme pain and surprise".

* ''Literature/{{Anastasius}}'': A wizard's study includes a stuffed crocodile hanging over his head, alongside a serpent hide serving as a rug.
-->There the wizard sat in all his state. A stuffed crocodile canopied his head; a serpent's skin of large dimensions was spread under his feet, and an old clothes-chest afforded support to the parts between.

-->Gradually, the children discovered other treasures: a chart on which the signs of the zodiac were nicely touched up by Miss Price in water color; a sheep's skull; a chocolate box full of dried mice; herbs in bunches; a pot of growing hemlock and one of witch's bane; a small stuffed alligator, which hung by two wires from the ceiling.\\
"What are alligators used for, Miss Price?" asked Paul.\\
Again Miss Price's long training in truthfulness overcame her longing to impress. "Nothing much," she said. "They're out of date now. I like to have it there for the look of it."

--->''Like all wizards' workshops, the place looked as though a taxidermist had dropped his stock in a foundry and then had a fight with a maddened glassblower, braining a passing crocodile in the process (it hung from the rafters and smelt strongly of camphor).''

* "Lot No. 249" (1892) by Arthur Conan Doyle: The room of Edward Bellingham, Egyptology student and necromancer, includes a hanging stuffed crocodile hanging from the ceiling as part of its collection of Egyptian curios.
-->Above were bull-headed, stork-headed, cat-headed, owl-headed statues, with viper-crowned, almond-eyed monarchs, and strange, beetle-like deities cut out of the blue Egyptian lapis lazuli. Horus and Isis and Osiris peeped down from every niche and shelf; while across the ceiling a true son of Old Nile, a great, hanging-jawed crocodile, was slung in a double noose.

-->The stuffed crocodile hanging from the ceiling; the leather-bound books, an astrolabe, convex and concave mirrors, odd scientific instruments...

-->There was a real corkindrill hanging from the rafters, very life-like and horrible with glass eyes and scaly tail stretched out behind it. When its master came into the room it winked one eye in salutation, although it was stuffed.
* "The Return of the Sorcerer" (1931) by Creator/ClarkAshtonSmith:
-->There were tables strewn with archaic instruments of doubtful use, with astrological charts, with skulls and alembics and crystals, with censers such as are used in the Catholic Church, and volumes bound in worm-eaten leather with verdigris-mottled clasps. In one corner stood the skeleton of a large ape; in another, a human skeleton; and overhead a stuffed crocodile was suspended.

* In ''One Good Knight'' (2006), from the ''Literature/TalesOfTheFiveHundredKingdoms'' series by Creator/MercedesLackey, one character comments that the Tradition ''requires'' Acadian Sophants (cross between a wizard and an adviser) to have a stuffed crocodile hanging from their rafters. When he tried to get rid of his, there was an even bigger one hanging from his ceiling the next day, looking smug.
* In ''Literature/TheWiseMansFear'', Caudicus, who purports to be a healer, has one in his tower. When the main character asks what it's for, Caudicus admits that he has no idea.
* According to Creator/DianaWynneJones's ''Literature/TheToughGuideToFantasyland'', alligators in Fantasyland are:
-->"now to be found only in a mummified state hanging from the rafters of a Wizard’s workroom. If the Alligator is present, it is a sure sign that the Wizard is friendly."
* In the Sherlock Holmes sequel ''Sherlock Holmes und das Ungeheuer von Ulmen'' (Sherlock Holmes and the Monster of Ulmen) by Franziska Franke, there is an apothecary shop complete with stuffed alligator.
* When Rain explores WickedWitch, Elphaba's, old room in ''Literature/OutOfOz'', she finds a stuffed [[CallARabbitASmeerp crocodrilos]] hanging from a rafter, pickled in brine.
* Parodied in ''Literature/TheBadGuys''. Granny Gumbo ''is'' an alligator in this case, while also being a witch doctor.
* The wizard, Istredd from ''Literature/TheWitcher'' has a stuffed crocodile in his study alongside several smaller animals.
* In Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold's historical fantasy novel ''Literature/TheSpiritRing'', the workshop of Abbot Monreale (a magician as well as an abbot and a bishop) includes a "dried and mummified crocodile" (although it's just stuffed in a barrel, not hanging from the ceiling), along with assorted books, papers, jars, bottles, and "mysterious little boxes with labels in Latin".

* The first issue of ''ComicBook/CriticalRole: Vox Machina Origins'' depicts an alligator hanging in the shop of the Stilben alchemist Zeth.

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' of Creator/AAPessimal, the change brought about in Wizardry after the time of ''Literature/{{Sourcery}}'' has rendered the fashion for stuffed alligators obselete and pretty much a thing of the past. Mustrum Ridcully is not pleased to discover the University still has an expensive and hazardous breeding programme for crocodilians of all sorts and points out that keeping them in a large breeding tank restrained only by insecure and haphazard magic is not a bright thing to do. These - and the tigers kept to provide miscellaneous body parts and secretions for old-time magical preparations - are packed off to the newly-established City Zoo for safekeeping. In a cost-cutting exercise and "rationalisation programme, Ridcully, and Ponder Stibbons, also take the opportunity to pack off the related and now nearly redundant School of Magical Taxidermy and one entire Department - the School of Para, Neo, Eldritch and Crypto Zoology - to purpose-built facilities at the Zoo. [[HilarityInZoos Hilarity Ensues]].
* In the The ''Game of Thrones'' fanfic ''Fanfic/ABalladOfTheDragonAndSheWolf'', Qyburn has a large mummified [[CallARabbitASmeerp lizard lion]] hanging from the ceiling of his lab among many other [[CollectorOfTheStrange creepy artifacts]].

* In ''Film/FistOfLegend'' a kung fu master uses dried crocodile to treat his asthma, knowledge of which is used to poison him.
* In the Soviet movie "The Doctor's Apprentice" (Uchenik Lekarya) the titular doctor has a stuffed crocodile hanging from the ceiling of his workshop, as well as other exotic animals, birds and fish.
* In [[Creator/KenRussell Ken Russell's]] ''Film/TheDevils'', the apothecary alligator is used as an ImprovisedWeapon.

* ''Anastasius'' (1836) by Thomas Hope:

* The room of Edward Bellingham, Egyptology student and necromancer, in "Lot No. 249" (1892) by Arthur Conan Doyle:
-->Above were bull-headed, stork-headed, cat-headed, owl-headed statues, with viper-crowned, almond-eyed monarchs, and strange, beetle-like deities cut out of the blue Egyptian lapis lazuli. Horus and Isis and Osiris peeped down from every niche and shelf; while across the ceiling a true son of Old Nile, a great, hanging-jawed crocodile, was slung in a double noose.
* "Shadows on the Rock" (1931) by Willa Cather features one, in the apothecary shop owned by protagonist Cecile's father. It's a hand-me-down from Auclair's grandfather, and he keeps it purely as decoration (being a surprisingly forward-thinking apothecary for 1697).
* "The Return of the Sorcerer" (1931) by Creator/ClarkAshtonSmith:
-->There were tables strewn with archaic instruments of doubtful use, with astrological charts, with skulls and alembics and crystals, with censers such as are used in the Catholic Church, and volumes bound in worm-eaten leather with verdigris-mottled clasps. In one corner stood the skeleton of a large ape; in another, a human skeleton; and overhead a stuffed crocodile was suspended.
* Merlyn's cottage in ''Literature/TheOnceAndFutureKing'' (1938):
-->There was a real corkindrill hanging from the rafters, very life-like and horrible with glass eyes and scaly tail stretched out behind it. When its master came into the room it winked one eye in salutation, although it was stuffed.
* Miss Price's workroom in ''Literature/BedknobAndBroomstick'' (1943) by Mary Norton.

* Lord Portico's study in ''Literature/{{Neverwhere}}'' (1996):
-->The stuffed crocodile hanging from the ceiling; the leather-bound books, an astrolabe, convex and concave mirrors, odd scientific instruments...
* A variation in the [[Creator/MontagueRhodesJames M. R. James]] story "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book": the Oxbridge protagonist finds a "dusty stuffed crocodile" hanging not in an apothecary's shop, but over the baptismal font in the cathedral of Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges, in southern France. (Incidentally, James [[ShownTheirWork wasn't making it up]].)
* In ''Literature/LoyalEnemies'', Shelena's employer has stuffed basilisk. Dusty and rather shabby at that, but everyone is too lazy to bring it to taxidermist for restauration.
* Frequently mentioned, and {{Lampshad|eHanging}}ed as a occupational necessity, in the Literature/{{Discworld}} series. Every proper wizard has a stuffed alligator hanging from the ceiling of his laboratory, even if there aren't any alligators naturally in the area. No one, ''especially'' the wizards, is sure why[[note]]Though never brought up in books in which the term is used, a witch would probably consider this to be a form of Boffo used to establish one's credentials[[/note]].
** ''Literature/TheLightFantastic'' (1986):

** In the same book, a magic shop also briefly displays a stuffed crocodile "with a lifelike expression of extreme pain and surprise."
** Cutwell's workshop in ''Literature/{{Mort}}'' (1987).
** In ''Literature/SoulMusic'' (1994), Quoth the Raven says that "the old stuffed alligator hanging from the ceiling" is a key part of wizardry, like dribbly candles and "[[TechnicolorScience bubbling green stuff in bottles]]". He scornfully adds that the wizards "get it all out of a catalogue. Believe me, it all comes in a big box".
* The dog wizard Tibbeth's shop in ''Literature/StrangerAtTheWedding'' (1994) by Creator/BarbaraHambly: "A mummified crocodile hung from the low rafters overhead". The trope is played with, in that it is a common wizard's prop in-universe, and its use is eventually explained -- it's hanging until it is entirely mummified, at which point it will be cut to pieces for use in potions and replaced by a fresh one.
* An early edition of ''Literature/TheSteerswoman'' (1989) by Rosemary Kirstein shows, on the cover, a scene set in a wizard's sanctum. You can tell it's a wizard's sanctum because of the stuffed crocodile hanging from the roof -- an interesting case of trope-as-shorthand, since the wizards' sanctum in the book itself is entirely bereft of taxidermied reptiles.
* Mentioned in Book 1 of ''Literature/TheBartimaeusTrilogy'' (2003) in the description of the magician Arthur Underwood's study. The djinni Bartimaeus notes that this, along with other stereotypical "wizardly" paraphernalia, is a good indication that Underwood is a second rate poser, trying to hide his incompetence behind spooky knickknacks that impress the {{Muggles}} but don't have any practical use, whereas the truly powerful magicians favor a sleek, modern look (and as later events demonstrate, calling Underwood a "second rate poser" might be considered overly generous).
* Referenced in ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', where [[BadassBookworm Verin's]] rooms in the White Tower feature (among [[GeniusSlob many other things]]) the skull of a huge, toothy lizard native to [[SwampsAreEvil the Drowned Lands]].

* ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' campaign ''The Fungi from Yuggoth'' (1984), adventure "The Thing in the Well". Dr. Cornwallis has a stuffed alligator hanging by wires from the ceiling of his alchemical laboratory.
* In the 1st edition ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyRoleplay'' adventure "Dying of the Light" (1995), the characters meet Dr Balthazar, a [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame dwarf]] alchemist from the University of Nuln. The cart he is travelling in is loaded with the paraphernalia of his alchemical studies, including a stuffed alligator.
* In a creepy variant, the goblin spellcaster from ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' module "[=DDA4=]: The Dymrak Dread" has a preserved ''lizardfolk'' carcass on display in his workshop.
* ''TabletopGame/ManMythAndMagic'', Book 1 of the main rules. The introductory adventure allows the PlayerCharacters to enter an apothecary's shop. To make it clear to the players that the shop has the product selection of an alchemist's laboratory, not only does it have a stuffed alligator hanging from the ceiling, it also has mummified cats, rats, bats and a stuffed owl.

* The description of the apothecary's shop in ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' (1597), Act V Scene I, contains what might be the first recorded use of the word "alligator" in English literature:

* The Voodoo Lady in ''VideoGame/TheCurseOfMonkeyIsland'' (1997) has a stuffed alligator whose tongue you have to pull to summon her.
* The Voodoo shop in ''[[VideoGame/GabrielKnight Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers]]'' (1993) has a dried alligator head. The proprietor claims it to be just a curio to impress tourists and superstitious old ladies. [[spoiler:He is lying: the head is an authentic mask for use in Voodoo rituals.]]
* In ''Videogame/Uncharted3DrakesDeception'', there is a dissected crocodile attached to a balcony in the library below London. There is even a trophy for jumping over it called "Ride the Crocodile".
* In the VideoGame/MysteryCaseFiles game ''Ravenhearst Unlocked'', the apothecary shop has what appears to be a stuffed ''dimetrodon'' hanging from the ceiling.
* Referenced in ''VideoGame/TheTraderOfStories Chapter II'': The Alchemical Decore Shoppe offers a free stuffed crocodile with every two skulls, but Sallamman the apothecary doesn't seem to have taken them up on the offer, settling for one skull.
* Brown Mage in ''VideoGame/{{Everhood}}'' has a crocodile in his lair. Turns out it's not stuffed; it's been paralized, ''and it begs you to kill it.'' [[spoiler:Doing so is required to finish the game as intended.]]

* In ''Webcomic/TheMansionOfE'', [[MadBomber Crazy Rhid]] has a stuffed "crocogator" hanging in his chemical workshop.
* In ''Webcomic/RoguesOfClwydRhan'', Krakatoa the witch also has a stuffed crocodile [[http://rocr.net/index.php?p=20070426 hanging from the ceiling of her house]].
* The ''Webcomic/SkinHorse'' storyline "Ghosts I Have Been", which is both OfficialFanSubmittedContent and ADayInTheLimelight for Remy the voodoo mortician, opens with him picking up his groceries, including a dead alligator. Which is then possessed by the Nonhuman Intelligence of the Week.

* In the 1st edition ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyRoleplay'' adventure, "Dying of the Light" (1995), the characters meet Dr Balthazar, a [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame dwarf]] alchemist from the University of Nuln. The cart he is travelling in is loaded with the paraphernalia of his alchemical studies including a stuffed alligator.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Man Myth & Magic}}'', Book 1 of the main rules. The introductory adventure allows the PlayerCharacters to enter an apothecary's shop. To make it clear to the players that the shop has the product selection of an alchemist's laboratory, not only does it have a stuffed alligator hanging from the ceiling, it also has mummified cats, rats, bats and a stuffed owl.

* ''TabletopGame/ManMyth&Magic'', Book 1 of the main rules. The introductory adventure allows the PlayerCharacters to enter an apothecary's shop. To make it clear to the players that the shop has the product selection of an alchemist's laboratory, not only does it have a stuffed alligator hanging from the ceiling, it also has mummified cats, rats, bats and a stuffed owl.