were of a partly resinous and partly mineral composition, so that when
pulverized they could be dissolved in nitric acid, the solution having a
reddish hue. The Persians not only attributed to bezoars the same
virtues as did the Europeans, but also recommended the administration of
the bezoar elixir to persons in health, that they might avoid
contracting disease and prolong their lives, more especially if the dose
were taken at the beginning of the year. In general, however, he found
that where Europeans used the bezoar as a remedy, the Persians gave a
dose of pearl tincture instead; but as rarities, or perhaps as
talismans, bezoars were even more highly prized in Persia than in
Europe, for there was hardly a Persian of note who did not preserve one
of these concretions among his treasures. The price depended upon
perfection of form and color, as well as upon size, one weighing a
mishkel (about 75 grains Troy) was commonly valued at one toman, the
equivalent of 15 ounces of silver (about $20), according to Kaempfer’s
computation, but the price rose rapidly with the size of the bezoar in a
proportion similar to that observable in the case of pearls. As Persian
bezoars were so costly in Persia, and the home demand for them so great,
those sold by this name in Europe must have had another origin.[418]
Of several experiments made with criminals to whom poison was
administered and then a dose of bezoar to test its virtues as an
antidote, one of the most interesting has to do with a criminal
incarcerated in the prison at Prague, in the reign of Emperor Rudolph
II. To this man a drachm of the deadly poison _aconitum napellus_ was
administered. Five hours were allowed to elapse before the bezoar was
given, so that the poison should have full time to be absorbed by the
system. During this time the effects were fully manifested, oppression
at the chest, pain in the gastric region, dimness of vision and
dizziness. When the five hours had expired five grains of bezoar were
given to the man in a little wine. After taking the dose he felt some
relief and vomited, but the bad symptoms soon returned and even became
aggravated, as though a supreme conflict for the mastery between poison
and antidote were in progress. There was delirium, extreme tension of
the abdomen, repeated vomiting, and an irregular, feverish pulse;
finally an acute inflammation of the eyes supervened, causing such
intense pain that the man declared he would rather die than endure it
longer. However, at the end of eight hours’ time from the administration
of the poison—three hours after the dose of bezoar had been given—all
the morbid conditions passed off, the patient was able to eat food with
relish and he slept quietly. In the morning he was perfectly well, and
never realized any subsequent bad effects. The emperor released him from
prison and even bestowed a handsome reward upon him.[419]
A strange experiment to determine the character and quality of bezoars
is related by Kaempfer on the authority of Jager. The latter asserted
that while in Golconda he had the opportunity of examining recently
captured gazelles for the presence of bezoars, and that by compressing
their abdomens he could distinctly feel two such concretions in the case
of one of the animals and five or six in the case of the other. They
were kept some days for further observation, but as they absolutely
refused all food, it was decided to kill them rather than have them
starve to death. This was done, but when the bodies were opened no trace
of any bezoar could be found, and Jager conjectures that the substance
of these concretions had been absorbed into the system of the animal for
lack of any other nourishment.[420]
In his memoirs, Jehangir Shah relates that an Afghan once brought from
the Carnetic two goats said to have bezoar stones [pâzahar] in their
bodies. Jehangir was much surprised to note that these animals were fat
and healthy looking, as he had always been told that those having
bezoars were invariably thin and wretched in appearance. However, the
Afghan was shown to be correct in his conjecture, for when one of the
goats was killed and the body opened four fine bezoars were brought to
light.[421]
About the beginning of the eighteenth century, Charles Jacques Poncet, a
French physician, was called to the court of the Abyssinian monarch of
that time. One of the favorite remedies of this Frenchman was a kind of
artificial bezoar, which he claims to have used with great success in
cases of intermittent fever. This so-called bezoar he administered to
the sovereign and to two of his children, and he also revealed to the
Abyssinian king the secret of its composition. He tells us that this
“Emperor of Ethiopia,” as he terms him, showed great interest in medical
science, and listened eagerly to explanations of the character and
operation of the various remedies.[422]
The Indians of Peru had their own theory as to the genesis of the bezoar
stone. In relation to this Joseph de Acosta writes:[423]
The Indians relate from the traditions and teachings of their
ancestors, that in the province of Xaura, and in other provinces of
Peru there are various poisonous herbs and animals which empoison the
waters and pastures where they [the vicuñas, etc.] drink and eat. Of
these poisonous herbs, one is right well known by a natural instinct
to the vicuña and to the other animals which engender the bezoar, and
they eat of this herb and thus preserve themselves from the poison of
the waters and pastures. The Indians also say that the stone is formed
in the stomachs of these animals from this herb, whence comes the
virtue it possesses as an antidote for poisons, as well as its other
marvellous properties.
Of the mineral bezoar, which was also regarded as an antidote against
poisons, Mohammed ben Mançur relates that various ornamental figures
were formed from it, such as small images of the Shah or little female
figures; these were perhaps regarded as talismans. Knife-handles were
also made of this material,[424] and here the use may have been
connected with the belief in the curative power of the bezoar, if
brought into direct contact with the skin, as would be the case when the
knife-handle was grasped in the hand.
A mineral bezoar bearing a close likeness to the animal concretion was
found in Sicily. This stone was usually round, sometimes oblong like an
egg, and sometimes compressed; its usual size was about that of a
pigeon’s egg, the largest stone not surpassing the size of a hen’s egg.
It was commonly white, occasionally of a somewhat ashy hue, and the
surface was generally smooth, though now and then it was rough with
small protuberances. Its taste resembled that of the white _bolus
armenus_. The composition of this stone was similar to that of the
Oriental bezoar of animal origin, having the same layers, and in the
centre a small mass of sand over which nature had imposed from eight to
ten layers, just as in the animal bezoar.[425]
A peculiar bezoar is reported from Indrapura, India. This was said to
have been found in the skull of a rhinoceros, and was of light weight
and of a black hue, varying to pale red when held against the light; it
was hard enough to cut glass. The owner believed it to be a panacea for
all ills. For blood-spitting it was held in the mouth; for rheumatism,
bruises, or burns, it was rubbed over the affected part; and for the
bites of venomous creatures it was simply laid upon the wound; even
those at the point of death were revived by it.[426]
An amulet set with a bezoar stone is said to have possessed such a power
to prevent bleeding that when a Malacca prince was killed in a battle
with his rebellious subjects, no blood was flowing from any of his
numerous wounds. On stripping the body a golden armlet set with a bezoar
came to view, and the moment this was removed blood began to flow freely
from the wounds.[427]
Mercato writes of a marvellous Occidental bezoar, sent from Peru to Rome
in 1534, as a gift to Pope Gregory XIII. It weighed no less than
fifty-six ounces, although it was defective, since a large portion of
the exterior crust was missing, the second layer was partly broken away,
and even the third layer was damaged in some places. This wonderful
concretion had been dedicated to one of the Peruvian gods, as a rare and
precious object, and it was taken away by the Spaniards when they
spoiled the temple. Mercato says that this bezoar was “of a truly
monstrous size, unheard of in all previous centuries, and it is still
the largest in the whole realm of nature.”[428]
The bezoars of the New World seem to have differed considerably from
those of India. They had a rough surface, were usually of a gray color,
of various sizes and forms, and composed of a number of superimposed,
coalescing layers, much thicker than those of the Oriental, or Indian,
bezoar. They were usually of considerable size, either hollow within or
containing seeds, needles and similar substances. They came from the
West Indies, especially from Peru, and were brought thence by the
Spaniards and Portuguese. The greater number were found in a kind of
chamois; however, we are told that the bezoar was not found in all these
animals, “but only in the old ones.”[429]
A letter written in the sixteenth century by one who had travelled
extensively in India and in Peru, illustrates the ideas of that time
regarding both Oriental and Occidental bezoars:
A gentleman living about twenty-eight years in these Countries, writes
to his Friend, that he saw those Animals out of which comes the
Bezoar, and saith, they are very like _Goats_, only they have no
Horns; and are so swift, that they are forc’d to shoot them with guns.
He tells us, that he and some Friends, on the 10th of _June_ 1568,
hunted some of these Creatures, and in five Days kill’d many of them;
and that in one of the oldest of them, they made diligent Search for
the stone, but found it not, neither in the Ventricle, nor in any
other Part of the Animal. They ask’d the Indians that attended upon
them, where the Stones lay; they denied they knew anything of them,
being very envious and unwilling to disclose such a Secret. At length
(he saith) a Boy about twelve years old perceiving us to be very
inquisitive, and to be very desirous of Satisfaction in that
Particular, shew’d us a certain Receptacle and (as it were) a _Purse_,
into which they receive their eaten herbs, which afterwards when
churned, they convey into the Ventricle.[430]
The same circumstances were observed by this informant in regard to the
Peruvian bezoars, and from the “pouch” of one of these animals were
taken no less than nine stones, “which, by the help of nature, seemed to
be made of the Juice of those salutiferous Herbs, which were crammed up
into this little Pouch.”[431]
While the Occidental bezoar from South America enjoyed a special repute
in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when bezoars were
so freely used as poison-antidotes, and for the cure of fevers and other
diseases, it has been doubted whether the aborigines of South America
ever valued them in any way before the time of the Spanish Conquest.
What seems, however, to be a proof that they sometimes did so, is
afforded by the discovery of a bezoar, probably taken from the body of a
llama, in a tomb at Cojitambo, in the Cañari region of Ecuador. In spite
of the contrary opinion expressed by Garcilasso de la Vega, there is
reason to believe that such animal concretions were used by these
Indians in magic practices. The Quichua name is _illa_, and Holquin in
his Quichua dictionary says that the natives believed that bezoars were
luck-bringing stones. Another name, _quicu_, is vouched for by Arriaga,
who states that the Spaniards found some bezoars stained with the blood
of sacrificial victims, thus showing that they were thought to possess a
certain religious or mystic significance. Another author, Don Vasco de
Contreros y Vievedo, writing in 1650, states that the most highly valued
of these concretions among the natives of South America were those taken
from the American tapir, which they called _danta_.[432]
The comparative value of Oriental and Occidental bezoars was still an
open question toward the end of the sixteenth century. In a letter
written by Sir George Carew to Sir Robert Cecil, on October 10, 1594,
the former states that he had submitted a bezoar from the West Indies to
a London jeweler named Josepho, who had told him that had the substance
come from the East Indies he would value it as high as £100, but that
never having made trial of West Indian bezoars, he would not venture on
an estimate, although he did not doubt but that they were quite as good.
Nevertheless he would not care to buy this one before having tested its
virtues experimentally.[433]
That good Queen Bess shared the beliefs of her age as to the virtues of
stones is well known, and she appears to have regarded her bezoars as
worthy of a place among the treasures of the Crown, for in the inventory
of the jewels made at the accession of James I we read:
Also one greate Bezar stone, sett in goulde that was Queene
Elizabeth’s, with some Unicorne’s Horne, in a paper; and one other
large Bezar stone, broken in peeces, delivered to our owne handes, by
the Lord Brooke, the two and twentith day of Januarie, one thousand
sixe hundred and twenty and two.[434]
After the death of Rudolph II, in 1612, the Venetian envoy, Girolamo
Soranzo, wrote to the Doge, “No other monarch has ever accumulated so
many jewels.” He also communicates the fact that some at least of these
gems were to follow him to the grave, for when interred, his head was
covered with a cap adorned with many valuable precious stones. However,
Rudolph’s fondness for the more splendid gems and jewels was accompanied
by a very particular taste for the collection of Oriental bezoars, of
which a large number are noted as in his possession at the time of his
death. These ranged in weight from 1 loth (½ oz. Troy) to 25½ loth (a
little more than one pound Troy); most of them were provided with a rich
gold setting, and one especially prized bezoar, weighing about 8 ounces,
reposed in a silver box decorated with 32 diamonds and 26 rubies.
Another of very singular shape, resembling “four toes,” is also entered
on the list. Besides these the imperial collection included several
other curious animal concretions, probably regarded as having
therapeutic virtues, such, for instance, as a “stone” from the body of a
doe; this had been found by a certain Helmhardt Jörger and by him
presented to the emperor; another of these treasured concretions came
from the stomach of a stag. A specimen of the famed “eagle-stone” is
also listed; this had a double gold setting, and on it were inscribed
the words “Piedra Geodas,” showing that the real character of this stone
as a geode was then well understood.[435]
Some of the gold mounted bezoars of Rudolph II are still to be seen in
the Hofmuseum, at Vienna. One is surrounded by a gold band with a scroll
pattern; another has a capping of gold and stands upon a golden base,
and still another, capped and belted with gold, is attached by a chain
to a golden bowl. This was probably to be used as a test of the freedom
from poison of any beverage in the vessel. A bezoar of the eighteenth
century is mounted upon a tree of gold, against the trunk of which a
wild boar is leaning. This may be only a decorative adjunct, or it might
be an indication of the particular animal source of this special
bezoar.[436]
The bezoars of Borneo are taken either from monkeys or porcupines. For
medicinal use, the gratings are dissolved in water and the solution is
administered as required. Skeats relates that he was once asked $200 by
a native for a small stone, erroneously asserted to be a bezoar. This
stone was carefully wrapped up in cotton and preserved in a tin box with
some grains of rice, the owner firmly believing that the stone fed on
the rice. A red monkey (semnopithecus) furnishes many of these bezoars,
but those from the porcupine are supposed to be so much the more
efficacious that the Sultan of Saik claims all bezoars of this kind
found in his dominions as his personal property; nevertheless, many are
said to be surreptitiously taken out of the country by Malayan or
Chinese traders. A remarkably fine specimen in the possession of the
Sultan is valued at $900; small ones may be worth no more than $40, but
the value increases very rapidly with the size of the concretion. Though
it is confidently believed that the bezoars work wonderful cures in
diseases of the bowels and of the respiratory organs, the natives value
them chiefly as aphrodisiacs, this action being secured either by
wearing them or by taking them in solution.[437]
[Illustration:
BEZOARS OF EMPEROR RUDOLPH II, NOW IN THE HOFMUSEUM, VIENNA
]
The Chinese work entitled P’ing-chou-k’o-t’an, by Chu Yü, written in the
first quarter of the twelfth century, mentions the _mo-so_ stone (the
bezoar) and states that it was worn in finger rings. Should anyone have
reason to suppose that he had taken poison, all he had to do in order to
escape any bad effects was to lick the bezoar stone set in his ring. The
Chinese writer adds that it might thus be justly called “a life
preserver.”[438]
The Dayaks of Borneo have a method for producing bezoars which they call
_guligas_. This is to shoot an animal with an unpoisoned arrow. When the
wound heals, there is often a hardening of the skin, which finally
results in the formation of a _guliga_. In some of these concretions the
point of the arrow still remains. The _guligas_ of natural formation are
frequently found between the flesh and the skin of apes and
porcupines.[439]
In the eighteenth century Valmont de Bomare reports that the bezoars of
the hedgehog commanded the highest price. These were greasy and soapy,
both to the eye and to the touch, and of a greenish or yellowish color;
a few were reddish or blackish. They were so highly valued in Holland
that a Jew in Amsterdam asked 6000 livres ($1200) for a specimen in his
possession as large as a pigeon’s egg; and such bezoars were even rented
in Holland and Portugal, at the rate of one ducat ($2.50) a day, to
those who were exposed to contagion, and believed that the bezoars, if
worn as amulets, would protect them from the danger.[440]
In a letter to the Macon, Georgia, _Journal and Messenger_ of August,
1854, Major J. D. Wilkes, of Dooley County, relates that while hunting
he shot down a fine buck. He states that on cutting up the animal he
found a stone of a dark greenish color, about where the windpipe joins
the lights. It was from an inch and a half to two inches long, and quite
heavy for its size, although it appeared to be porous. Major Wilkes says
that he had heard of similar stones from old hunters, and had been told
that they possessed the power of extracting poison, but that they were
rarely found. The communication proceeds to relate a case where this
stone was successfully applied to a dog which had been bitten by a
rattlesnake. We have here one of the few notices extant regarding an
American bezoar stone.[441]
An American bezoar taken from the stomach of a deer killed in the
Chilhowee Mountains, in Tennessee, was reported in 1866 by Prof. David
Christy. In extracting this concretion the hunter had damaged the outer
layer, but when this was removed there remained a perfectly smooth,
round body, about the size and shape of a hen’s egg, and of a light
brown color. When Professor Christy obtained it, this bezoar had already
acquired the reputation of possessing great though somewhat undefined
virtues; he presented it to Professor Wood of the Ohio Medical College
in Cincinnati.[442]
Writing of bezoars in the year 1876, Dr. Learned states that Signor
Korkos, of Morocco, showed him one for which he had paid twelve dollars.
It was as large as a small walnut, the surface being smooth and
cream-colored; a section revealed the presence of the concentric
circular layers characterizing the formation of this concretion. For
remedial use it was rubbed on a stone until a sufficient quantity of its
powder was obtained, which was then diluted in liquid and administered
as a potion. Strict dieting and absolute rest in the house for seven
days were an essential part of the treatment, the bezoar powder being
more especially recommended in diseases of the heart, liver or other
internal organs, but for sore eyes and for rheumatism its virtues were
praised. This illustrates a modern employment of the concretion in
Mohammedan Morocco.[443]
Some medical authorities of the sixteenth century were disposed to
regard the calculus produced by the human subject as superior in
medicinal efficacy to the far-famed bezoar. One of their arguments was
that as man was the highest type of organized being a human product must
exceed in value one from an animal source; then again, his food was of
the best, superior in quality to that taken by the animals furnishing
the bezoars. For every theory a proof can be found if one is on the
lookout for it, and therefore we need not be surprised if the virtues of
calculi or gravel were also supported by evidence. In 1624 or 1625 the
Dutch city of Leyden was visited by the plague, and to the great regret
of the physicians there was no supply of bezoars on hand. Hereupon they
were driven to make use of human gravel, and found to their astonishment
that this was an even more excellent sudorific than the bezoar
itself.[444]
[Illustration:
Calculi taken from the bladder of Pope Pius V. From Mercati’s
“Metallotheca Vaticana.” Romæ, 1719.
]
Although there is no direct relation between bezoars and the hair-balls
sometimes found in the stomach or intestines of human beings, there is
some slight analogy, as the animal bezoar concretions seem to have been
formed about a nucleus consisting of some indigestible material that has
been swallowed by an animal. From the report of hospital surgeons, it
appears that these hair-balls, which result from a long-continued habit
of swallowing hair, are almost exclusively found in the bodies of women,
generally of very young girls. The large size which they sometimes
attain is very surprising; in several instances they have so filled up
the stomach that they are moulded by it into its exact shape. Although
when a hair-ball has reached this size, and indeed long before, the most
alarming symptoms set in, frequently recurrent vomiting being the most
characteristic, we cannot but wonder how it is possible for _any_ food
to enter and pass through the stomach under such conditions, the only
explanation being the great power of dilation this organ possesses. Its
disposition to patiently tolerate foreign bodies where it cannot expel
them, renders it often a poor guide in a diagnosis based upon the
patient’s personal experience. These hair-balls accumulate and lodge not
only in the stomach but also in the intestines, and in either case the
eventual result is almost certain to be fatal unless the obstacle is
removed by operation. Very occasionally only does nature react
sufficiently to expel the impediment without surgical aid. Of course all
treatment is vain unless the morbid habit of hair-swallowing can be
overcome. This does not seem to be an accompaniment of a distinctly
diseased mental condition, although that is sometimes coincident, but
must assuredly result from some derangement or abnormality of the
nervous centres, inducing a morbid and unnatural craving.[445]
[Illustration:
Types of the Ovum Anguinum. Echinites (sea-urchins). From Aldrovandi’s
“Museum metallicum,” Bononiæ, 1648.
]
The serpent-stone, called by Pliny _ovum anguinum_, or “serpent’s egg,”
is said to have been worn by the Druid priests as a badge of
distinction. Pliny relates that he had seen one of them which was as
large as a moderate-sized apple, its shell being a cartilaginous
substance. It was supposed to be generated in midsummer out of the
saliva and slime exuding from a knot of intertwined serpents. When the
moisture had coagulated and formed into a sphere, this was tossed in the
air by the hissing snakes, and, in order to preserve its efficacy as a
talisman, the finder had to catch it in a linen cloth before it fell to
the ground. Such “serpent’s eggs” were in high favor with the Romans,
who believed they procured for the wearers success in all disputes and
the protection of kings. So great was the faith reposed in their magical
virtues that Claudius is said to have condemned to death a Roman knight,
one of the Vecontii, simply because he had an _ovum anguinum_ concealed
in his bosom when he appeared in court during the trial of a lawsuit in
which he was involved. In order to enhance the value of this amulet, the
story was circulated that great dangers were incurred in securing it;
for the snakes pursued any one who seized the egg and he could only
escape by fording a river, across which they could not swim.[446] In
later accounts of this amulet it is described as a ring, sometimes
composed of a blue stone with an undulating streak or stripe of yellow,
thought to represent a snake.