Bezoar
So called because it is found in the stomach of the sort of goat
named bezoar. This is originally a Persian word,
viz. badzcher, or lazcher, or phahazar, which signifies an antidote.
Avenzoar is the first who mentions it as a medicine, or who gives
its history.
Bezoar stones are preternatural or morbid concretions formed in the
bodies of many animals; they arc-composed of several strata, or
layers, like an onion. In the Hist. de lacad. an. 1703, it is
asserted, that all bezoar stones are bilious concretions of the
respective animals which afford them.
Bezoars may be divided into: 1. The true oriental and occidental.
2. Animal concretions which resemble bezoar; as those from apes,
and even the various species of pearls and crabs' eyes.
3. The several species of fossil bezoars. 4. Those which have only
the shape, without the virtues of bezoar, as the calculi in the
human bladder, kidneys, and gall bladder; or in the same parts of
oxen. 5. The aegragropila, balls of matted hair, and bezoar Germanicum,
see Capra Al-pina.
Bezoar orientalis, called also lapis bezoar, hircus bezoarticus,
and the oriental bezoar stone, from the East Indies. It is supposed
to be produced in the cavity at the bottom of the fourth stomach of
a species of goat in Persia called parau. Antelope gazella Lin.
though not peculiar to this species, as it occurs also in the
antilope cervicapra and the capra aegagrus Lin. It is only found
in the old ones, and exclusively in those which feed on particular
mountains.
This stone, finely powdered and levigated with spirit of wine,
was formerly made into balls, which were called Gascoigne balls,
from Gascoign their inventor. What are at present sold under that
name by the trading chemists, if any remain, are a sophisticated
medicine without bezoar.
Bezoar occidentalis, called also lapis bezoar, Pe-ruvianus, the
American or occidental bezoar, from the West Indies.
It is found in the stomach of an animal of the slag kind, called
animate bezoarticum occidentale, a native of Peru, and other parts
in the Spanish West Indies; and in the stomach of the yzard of the
Alps, antilope rupi-caftra and capra ibex Lin.
Bezoar hystricis, (from the hedge hog, because its spots resemble
the bristles of an hedge hog,) pila hystricis, bezoar porci, lapis
porcinus, petro del porco, lapis Malacensis, the porcupine bezoar,
or gall stone. It is found in the gall bladder of an Indian porcupine,
particularly in the province of Malacca, of a roundish figure, and of
a pale or purplish colour, or between a green and white; it is soft,
smooth, and slippery to the touch; to the taste intensely bitter, and
the water in which it is steeped soon becomes bitter also. It does
not appear to differ from the biliary concretions of an ox or any
other animal. It is carried in the pocket as an amulet, and hired
in Portugal at about a shilling a day.
Bezoar simiae, or Lapis simiae, the bezoar of the monkey. Stones
of this kind are found in the stomach of certain monkeys in Brasil
and the East Indies, though they rarely produce them.. They are
about the size of hazel nuts, harder than the oriental bezoar,
of a dark green colour, almost black. The scarcity-renders them
costly, and they are seldom to be met with. Bezoars are also
taken from the stomachs of I i 2 crocodiles, dogs, mules, and the
camelus vicugna Lin. All the true bezoars, when rubbed, exhale
a perfume; and, when cut through, are found to contain a nucleus
of vegetable matter, successively covered by laminae of an ammoniacal
magnesian phosphat, mixed with a coloured extractive vegetable matter,
and animal fluids of a bilious kind. These give the green colour and
the smell of musk. On the molares of ruminant animals there is a brown
golden coloured coat, like that on the surface of their bezoars.
Fourcroy has analysed the oriental bezoars with some care,
(Annales du Museum dhistoire' Naturelle, vol. i. p. 111).
He considers them as an animal resin different from every concretion.
They are softened by heat, easily penetrated by a hot needle, exhaling
an aromatic and musky odour; they burn and inflame with a thick smoke,
impart a colour to boiling water, and wholly dissolve in alcohol, which
they colour. They are dissolved by caustic alkalis, differing in this
from vegetable resins.
The false bezoars are prepared with powdered oyster shells made into
small balls with gum water, and perfumed with ambergris. They effervesce
with acids, and, when cut, have no concentric laminae; nor, when broken,
any crystalline striae; nor, when rubbed on paper previously covered with
chalk, do they leave an olive coloured mark. The Goa and Malacca stones
are of this kind.
Bezoar fossile. Fossile bezoar is a small hollow body from Italy, found
in sand and clay pits, of a purple colour, with a rough surface, the size
of a walnut, and light. When broke, it is found to consist of an irony
crust, containing in its hollow a fine greenish white earth resembling
pale bezoar. The earth is used, and not the shells. It seems to be of
the nature of bole armoniac, or rather calcareous; and is also called
bezoar minerale, terra sicula et noceriana, lapis bezahan, sicu-lus albus,
belzuar minor. Siciliana, mineral bezoar, and Sicilian earth.
Notwithstanding all the boasted virtues of these bezoars, viz. the power of
destroying poisons and reanimating the vital powers, it is certain that
they are absolutely indigestible in the stomachs of the animals in which
they are found; and they are equally so in the human, except when
accompanied with an acid; so that no more can be expected from them
than from any of the testacea that are soluble in acids; but they are
inferior to them, as far less absorbent, and more difficultly acted on
by any acid.
Bezoar microcosmicum, called also calculus huma-nus, the calculus of
the human bladder.
It is various in its degrees of hardness, as well as in its size and figure.
It has been used in the place of the more costly sorts.
Bezoar animale. Animal bezoar. Take the whitest calcined hartshorn
levigated to the greatest subtility, pour on it, drop by drop, the spirit
of vitriol, to form it into a paste to be made into balls.
A powder of liver and heart of vipers is called ani-inal bezoar.
Bezoar bovinus, called also alcheron lapis. The Portuguese call it mesang
de vaca. It is a stone found in the gall bladder of a bull.
Bezoar mineral. See Bezoar fossils.
To prepare the sea cucumber after it is collected, the internal organs are removed, and dirt and sand are washed out of the cavity. It is then boiled in salty water and dried in the air to preserve it. When readied for use in making food, it is softened in warm water and then boiled.
