mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) (01/03/90)
I've heard about a thing called a bezoar stone, which apparently comes from the stomach of some sort of goat. It's reputed to absorb poison. Anybody ever see one of these things? Could it be polished like a rock, or is it more like a piece of dried manure? Is it really effective for removing some kinds of poisons? Where do they come form, and how much do they cost?
larry@kitty.UUCP (Larry Lippman) (01/04/90)
In article <25567@cup.portal.com>, mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) writes: > I've heard about a thing called a bezoar stone, which apparently comes from > the stomach of some sort of goat. It's reputed to absorb poison. > > Anybody ever see one of these things? Could it be polished like a rock, > or is it more like a piece of dried manure? Is it really effective for > removing some kinds of poisons? Where do they come form, and how much > do they cost? Do you lie awake nights thinking of bizarre questions to pose to the Net? :-) In any event, you piqued my curiosity. I checked a few contemporary texts on pharmacognosy in my organization's library, but could find no reference. So, I checked a few "non-traditional" references that we keep around, and found it listed in a 1918 edition of the "United States Dispensatory". There are two varieties of bezoar: Western Bezoar (lapis bezoar occidentalis) and Oriental Bezoar (lapis bezoar orientalis). Both types of bezoar are concretions of impure calicum phosphate which are found in the stomach and intestines of animals. The Dispensatory mentions that bezoar has no useful value, but that it was previously believed to have possessed various curative powers. I don't know where you can find bezoar, although you might ask your neighborhood pharmacist. :-) If you are looking for something similar in origin to bezoar, you stand a better chance of obtaining ambergris. You can probably find a vendor in the OPD under the heading of perfume fixatives. <> Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp. - Uniquex Corp. - Viatran Corp. <> UUCP {boulder|decvax|rutgers|watmath}!acsu.buffalo.edu!kitty!larry <> TEL 716/688-1231 | 716/773-1700 {hplabs|utzoo|uunet}!/ \uniquex!larry <> FAX 716/741-9635 | 716/773-2488 "Have you hugged your cat today?"
jack@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin) (01/05/90)
mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) wrote: > I've heard about a thing called a bezoar stone, which apparently comes from > the stomach of some sort of goat. It's reputed to absorb poison. > Anybody ever see one of these things? Could it be polished like a rock, > or is it more like a piece of dried manure? Is it really effective for > removing some kinds of poisons? Where do they come form, and how much > do they cost? The following is paraphrased from Frank Dawson Adams: "The Birth and Development of the Geological Sciences" (Dover reprint, 1954, of a 1938 original), one of the finest collections of nutty notions ever assembled between covers. The bezoar was first mentioned by the mediaeval Arab physicians. It seems to be a goat's hairball. It got such a reputation as a poison antidote that the Persian variety (supposed to be the best - llama hairballs from "the island of Peru" were also used) was sold for ten times its weight in gold. Other "stones" supposedly from inside animals (usually the head) were also regarded as having poisonproofing properties; these originally had specific names depending on whether they came from a stag, cat, dragon, or whatever, but eventually all got labelled as "bezoar". Frederich Slare, fellow of the Royal Society, investigated them experimentally in 1715 and concluded that people who buy them are "exchanging good silver for clay and dirt". Adams doesn't say what his experiments were but I imagine they involved doing nasty things to puppies without anaesthetic. Here is one bezoar story, from Bauhin's "De Lapides Bezaaris" (Basle, 1625): "[after a stag has eaten a poisonous snake] driven mad by thirst, it darts forward at full speed to find some pool or river in which to plunge itself, that by the cooling water the mighty heat which has seized upon after devouring these noxious animals may be assuaged. It remains standing in the water, drinking nothing, until that burning heat has been tempered and passed away. Standing immersed in these waters, taught as it is by nature, like Tantalus thirsty in the midst of the billows, it does not drink, for if it should taste the least drop of water, it would fall dead upon the spot. "In the meantime tears slowly ooze forth from its eyes, which little by little grow thicker in the corners of its eyes, are congealed there into the size of a chestnut, or of an acorn. When it feels itself relieved of the poison, stepping out of the water, it turns aside into its own lairs, and to remove the stones which are an obstacle to vision it rubs its head against the trees, or as others say, in the act of stepping out of the river, the stones fall from its eyes to the ground. When they are found the merchants of Sicily and the East sell them at a high price as an efficaceous remedy against any poison. For this is the Belhazard, that is to say "The Antidote Stone", held in such high esteem among those who possess it, that they have not the slightest fear of any poison whatsoever." On the other hand, "heliotrope" might be a better bet. That stone not only protects you against poison, but also, according to the mediaeval lapidaries, makes you invisible and guards your soul from error. I just happen to have some handy in my desk drawer, right beside the title deeds for the Forth Bridge... prices on application... -- Jack Campin * Computing Science Department, Glasgow University, 17 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QQ, SCOTLAND. 041 339 8855 x6044 wk 041 556 1878 ho INTERNET: jack%cs.glasgow.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk USENET: jack@glasgow.uucp JANET: jack@uk.ac.glasgow.cs PLINGnet: ...mcvax!ukc!cs.glasgow.ac.uk!jack
beverly@ai.cs.wisc.edu (Beverly Seavey) (01/06/90)
In article <3588@kitty.UUCP> larry@kitty.UUCP (Larry Lippman) writes: > > I don't know where you can find bezoar, although you might ask >your neighborhood pharmacist. :-) > You find them in a stockyard. I used to work next to an ascaris lab. They went to a pig slaughterhouse once a week to get worms for study. They had a bezoar that they had found in the muck on the floor. It looked like a football covered with hair.
mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) (01/08/90)
Hmm.... you can get these things at a slaughterhouse, you say. That gives me an idea for a business. Make the bezoars into pills and sell them to "health food" stores. Yeah, that's the ticket, make Vitamin C + Rose Hips + Bezoar tablets. And print up some outrageous pamphlets describing how almost all diseases are caused by accumulation of toxins in the body, which bezoars absorb and remove. (Of course these are provided separately to the store owners for purely informational purposes to avoid having the FDA claim I'm selling a drug.)
shenkin@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Peter S. Shenkin) (01/08/90)
In article <25715@cup.portal.com> mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) writes: >Hmm.... you can get these things at a slaughterhouse, you say. That gives >me an idea for a business. Make the bezoars into pills and sell them to >"health food" stores. Yeah, that's the ticket, make Vitamin C + Rose Hips + >Bezoar tablets..... Here's an even better idea: give them away as free premiums if you send in ten oat-bran box-tops. Did you see the New Yorker cartoon a few months back, with Father Time (or was it the Angel of Death), equipped with hourglass and scythe, sitting at his executive desk, and saying to his executive secretary, "I'm done with the cold fusion file. Bring me the file on oat bran." (Sorry if you're into all this stuff -- I don't mean to offend. And I realize this posting isn't completely appropriate for this newsgroup. But, like the previous poster, I guess, I just couldn't resist!) -P. ************************f*u*cn*rd*ths*u*cn*gt*a*gd*jb************************** Peter S. Shenkin, Department of Chemistry, Barnard College, New York, NY 10027 (212)854-1418 shenkin@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu(Internet) shenkin@cunixc(Bitnet)