Tales of the Bezoar Stone

The bezoar stone, according to the usual belief, was taken from the intestines or the liver either of the goat or of the deer. The Arabs told a strange tale as to the generation of this stone. They said that at certain seasons the deer were wont to devour snakes and other venomous creatures, whereupon they would straightway hasten to the nearest pool and plunge into it until only their nostrils were above the water. Here they remained until the feverish heat caused by the poison they had swallowed was alleviated. During this time stones were formed in the corners of their eyes; these dropped as the deer left the pool, and were found on its banks. The stones were a sovereign antidote for poisons of all kinds. When reduced to a powder and taken internally, or when simply bound to the injured part, they effected a cure by inducing a profuse perspiration. It is curious to note that this tale foreshadows, in a fanciful way, the latest progress of medical science; namely, the use of a substance generated in the body of a diseased animal as an antidote for the disease from which the animal suffered.

We are also told that Abdallah Narach narrates the case of the Moorish king of Cordoba, Miramamolin, as Monardes gives the name, to whom a violent poison had been administered and who was cured by means of a bezoar stone. The king, overcome with gratitude for the preservation of his life, gave his royal palace to the man who had brought him the stone. Monardes remarks: "This certainly was a royal gift, since we see that at this day the castle of Cordova is something rare and of great value and the stone must have been highly prized when such a price was paid for it."

The first mention of the bezoar stone is by the Arabic and Persian writers. In the Arabic work attributed to Aristotle, and which was certainly written as early as the ninth and possibly in the seventh century, it is even described among the precious stones. The same is true of the oldest Persian work on medicine, namely, that of Abu Mansur Muwaffak, composed about the middle of the tenth century. A valuable monograph on the bezoar was written in 1625 by Caspar Bauhin, a learned professor and physician of Basel; this work contains all that was then known of the various qualities ascribed to this substance by the older authors.

The bezoar does not appear to have been used medicinally in Europe before the twelfth century, when the so-called pestilential fevers became very prevalent. In their distress people turned to the lapis bezoar, which was so highly recommended by the Arabic physicians whose works were, at that time, becoming more widely known through the intercourse between the Spaniards and the Moors. Caspar Bauhin writes: "Even to-day princes and nobles prize it very highly and guard it in their treasures among their most precious gems; so that the physicians are forced, sometimes against their better judgment, to employ it as a remedy. So great are its virtues that many imitations are made."

The name bezoar, derived from the Persian padzahr (pad, expelling; zahr, poison), or some of its many variants, was often used to designate any antidote for poison, so that the Arabs would say that such or such a substance was the bezoar for a particular poison. This should be understood to signify that the stone received its name because it was regarded as a specially powerful antidote.

The various authors give many different sources for the bezoar. We have already cited Monardes and repeated his account; other writers asserted that this concretion came from the heads of certain animals, others again said that it was taken from their livers, and still others stated that it was formed in the eye of the stag. Naturally, concretions of a similar form and quality may well have been obtained from any of these sources. Indeed, one of the most potent bezoars was that taken from the monkey. A specimen of this kind is described and figured in the Museum Brittanicum with the following description:

A Monkey's Bezoar, very much resembling one from the goat, of an oblong shape broke in two, with a long straw, or some such like substance in its centre; its colour brown, pink, or deep yellow. I found it set as generally they are for preservation in a little chest, or case, of what is called Lignum Laevisiunum; the pith or medula of which appears to resemble the common elder, and may, for what I know, be as curious as the stone itself.

Toll quotes Jacob Bontius to the effect that these monkey bezoars, which were rounded and a little longer than the finger, were considered the best of all.

As the chief quality claimed for the bezoar was that it induced a profuse perspiration, we might understand that it could have a beneficial effect in some cases. It was also remarked that the solution of the stone blackened the teeth and those who used it were therefore obliged to take great care that the medicine should not touch their teeth.