Buffon's Natural History. Volume 08 (of 10) / Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c

by comte de Georges Louis Leclerc Buffon

In some places they take the wild gazelles by means of a tame one, to the horns of which they fasten a snare made of ropes. When a herd of wild gazelles is found, the tame one is sent among them, but he no sooner approaches than one of the males of the wild herd advances to oppose him, and in butting with his horns is soon entangled in the noose. In this struggle they both commonly fall to the ground, when the hunter coming up kills the one and disengages the other.

The antelopes, especially the largest sort, are much more common in Africa than in India, they are stronger and fiercer than the other gazelles, from which they are easily distinguished by the double flexion of their horns; and not having either the black or brown streak on their sides. The middling antelopes are about the size of the fallow-deer; their horns are very black, their belly very white, and their fore-legs shorter than the hind ones. They are well made, and extremely clean animals, never lying down but in dry places; they are likewise very swift, watchful, and apprehensive of danger; in open places they look round, and when they see a man, a dog, or any other enemy, they fly with all speed. But, notwithstanding this natural timidity, they have a kind of courage, for if surprised, they turn suddenly round, and face those who attack them with great firmness.

The antelopes, in general, have large black eyes, very brilliant, and so beautiful that the Orientals employ them proverbially, in praising the eyes of their mistresses. A gazelle-eyed beauty is the highest compliment a lover can pay. Their limbs are finer and more delicate than those of the roe-buck; their hair is as short, and more soft and glossy; their hind legs are longer than those before; like the hare, therefore, they have greater security in ascending than in descending steep places. Their swiftness is equal to that of the roe-buck; but the latter hastens on by bounds, while the former runs in an uninterrupted course. Most of them are yellow upon the back, white under the belly, with a black stripe which separates these two colours below the flanks. Their tails are of various lengths, but always covered with a pretty long blackish hair; their ears are long, erect, open, and terminating in a point: they all have cloven hoofs nearly like the sheep; both males and females have permanent horns, but the latter have them thinner and shorter than the former.

Such is the whole information which we have been able to acquire concerning the different species of gazelles, and their natural dispositions and habits. Let us now see how far naturalists have been right in attributing the production of the oriental bezoar to one kind of those animals only; and whether this animal be really the pasan or pazan, which they have described by the name of the bezoar gazel. In examining the description and the figures of Kœmpfer, who has written a great deal on this subject, it is doubtful whether he means that the pazan or the algazel is the only animal which produces the oriental bezoar. If we consult other naturalists and travellers, we shall be tempted to believe that this stone is the production not only of gazelles but of wild and domestic goats, and even sheep, the formation of which probably depends more on the temperature of the climate, and the quality of the food, than on the nature or the species of the animal. If we believe Rumphius, Seba, and some other authors, the true oriental bezoar is the production of apes and not of gazelles, goats, or sheep. But this opinion of Rumphius and Seba is not founded, for we have seen many of these concretions, to which the name of ape bezoar has been given, but they are quite different from the oriental bezoar, which is certainly produced by a ruminating animal, and is easily distinguished from all other bezoars by its shape, substance, and colour, which is generally that of an olive, and brown within, while the occidental bezoar is of a pale yellow. The substance of the first is soft and porous; that of the last hard, dry, and as it were petrified. Besides, as prodigious quantities of the oriental bezoar was consumed in the last century; and as it was used in Europe and Asia for all cases in which our present physicians give cordial medicines, and antidotes against poison, may we not presume, from the great quantities which were formerly, and are still, in some degree, consumed, that this stone is produced, not from a single species of animal but from many, and that it is equally the production of gazelles, goats, and sheep, who cannot produce it but in certain climates of the Levant and Indies.

In all that has been written on this subject we have not met with one distinct observation, nor a single decisive argument. It only appears, by what Monard, Garcias, Clusius, Aldrovandus, and others, have said, that the oriental bezoar animal is not the common and domestic goat, but a species of wild goat which they have not characterised. Thus, likewise, all that can be gathered from Kœmpfer is, that the bezoar animal is a kind of wild goat, or rather gazelle; but by the testimonies of Thevenot, Chardin, and Tavernier, it seems that this stone is obtained more from sheep and wild or domestic goats, than from gazelles. What gives great weight to the assertions of these travellers is, that they speak from ocular inspection, and because, although they do not mention the gazelles on this occasion, there is no appearance of their being deceived, as they knew them perfectly well, and mention them in other parts of their works. We must not, therefore, conclude, with our ancient naturalists, that the oriental bezoar is exclusively the production of a particular species of gazelle, for I must own, that after having examined not only the testimonies of authors, but such facts as might decide the question, I am inclined to believe, that this stone proceeds equally from the greatest number of ruminating animals, but more commonly from goats and gazelles. This stone is formed of concentric layers, and often contains foreign matter in its centre. I have endeavoured to find out the nature of this matter, which serves as a nucleus to the bezoar, supposing from that a judgment might be formed of the animal that possesses them. This nucleus is of various kinds; sometimes I found them to consist of pieces of flint, stones of plumbs, tamarinds, seeds of cassia, and particularly pieces of straw and buds of trees, therefore I could not hesitate to attribute this production to those animals which brouze upon shrubs and leaves.

The oriental bezoar then is clearly not the production of one particular animal but of many different ones; and it is not difficult to reconcile the testimonies of most travellers with this opinion. The ancients, both Greeks and Latins, have no knowledge of the bezoar. Galen is the first who speaks of its virtues as an antidote against poison. The Arabs, likewise, praise the bezoar as possessing those qualities; but neither the Greeks, Latins, nor Arabians, particularly describe the animals which produce it. Rabi Moses, an Egyptian, only says, that some pretend this stone is formed in the angles of the eyes, and others in the gall-bladder of the eastern sheep. Indeed there are bezoars, or, more properly speaking, concretions, formed in the eyes of stags, and some other animals; but these concretions are very different from the oriental bezoar, and all the concretions in the gall-bladder are of a light, oily, and inflammable matter, which bears no resemblance to the substance of the bezoar. Andreas Lacuna, a Spanish physician, says, in his Commentaries on Dioscorides, that the oriental bezoar is extracted from a certain kind of wild goat which feeds in the mountains of Persia. Amatus Lusitanus confirms Lacuna’s remarks, and adds, that this mountain-goat greatly resembles our stag. Monard, who quotes all three, still more positively affirms, that this stone is produced from the internal parts of a mountain-goat in India, to which, he says, I have affixed the name of cervi-capra, because it inclines both to the goat and the stag; for it is nearly of the size and shape of the stag, but its horns, like those of the goat, are very simple, and very much bent backwards. Garcias ab Horto says, that in Corasson, and in Persia, there is a kind of he-goats, called pasans, and that it is in their stomachs the oriental bezoar is formed; that as well as in Persia it is found in Malacca, and near Cape Comorin, and that in great numbers of the goats killed for the subsistence of the troops these stones are regularly sought for and found in their stomachs. Christopher Acosta confirms what Garcias and Monard have said, without adding any thing new; in short, not to omit any thing which has a relation to the historical detail of this stone, Kœmpfer, a man of more learning than exactness, being in the province of Laar, in Persia, says, that he went with the natives of that country to hunt the pasan, which produces the bezoar, and that he saw them extract that stone; besides which, he affirms, that the true oriental bezoar proceeds from this animal; that the buck ahu, of which he has also given a figure, produces the bezoar, but that they are of a very inferior quality. By his figures of the pasan and ahu we might be induced to believe, that the first represents the common gazelle rather than the true pasan; and from his description we might imagine his pasan to be a he-goat and not a gazelle, as he gives it a beard resembling that of the goat; and from the name ahu, which he gives to his other buck, as well as by his second figure, we might rather suppose it to be the wild goat than the true ahu, which is our tzeiran, or large gazelle. What is yet more singular, Kœmpfer, who seems willing to decide the species of animal that produces the oriental bezoar, and affirms, that it is the wild buck called the pasan, quotes, at the same time, a man, whose word, he says, may be relied on, who felt the bezoar stones in the belly of the gazelles of Golconda. Thus all the positive conclusions that can be drawn from Kœmpfer is, that there are two kinds of wild goats, the pasan and ahu, which produce the bezoar in Persia, and that in the Indies this stone is likewise found in the gazelles.

Chardin positively says, that oriental bezoar is found in the wild and domestic goats on the shore of the Persian gulph, and in many provinces of India; and that in Persia it is also to be met with in sheep. Dutch travellers say the same; Tavernier still more positively affirms, that they are found in the stomachs of domestic goats, whose hair is as fine as silk, and that having bought six of these goats alive, he extracted from them seventeen bezoar stones, and a portion of another, about the size of half a nut, and then adds, that there are other bezoars supposed to proceed from apes, the virtues of which are still greater than those of the goats; that there is also cow bezoar, but the virtues are inferior to the others, &c. What can we infer from such a variety of opinions and testimonies? What can we conclude from them? unless it be admitted that the oriental bezoar proceeds not from one single species but from many different animals, particularly gazelles and goats.

With respect to the occidental bezoar we can affirm they proceed neither from goats nor gazelles, for we shall prove there is neither of them, nor even any animal of that genus, in all the extent of the new world. Instead of gazelles we only meet with roe-bucks in the woods of America; instead of wild goats and sheep, lamas and pacos animals of a quite different nature, and of which we have already treated. The ancient Peruvians had no other cattle, and, at the same time, that these two species are almost reduced to a domestic state, they subsisted in much greater numbers in their natural condition upon the mountains. The wild lamas were called huanacus, and the pacos vicunnas; from whence the French have derived the name of vigogne, which denotes the same animal as the pacos; both the pacos and the lamas produce bezoars, but the tame ones more seldom than the wild.

M. Daubenton, who has more minutely inspected the nature of bezoar stones than any other person, thinks they are composed of something similar to that which fastens itself to the teeth of ruminating animals in the form of a shining tartareous matter; and it is evident, from the collection of bezoars, of which there are a great number in the royal cabinet, that there are essential differences between the oriental and occidental bezoars. Thus the East Indian goats, or the gazelles of Persia, are not the only animals which produce the concretions, called bezoars for the chamois, and, perhaps, the wild goat of the Alps, the he-goats of Guinea, and many animals of America, afford this substance; and, if we comprehend under this name all concretions of this nature, which are met with in different animals, we may be assured, that most quadrupeds, excepting carnivorous ones, and even crocodiles and alligators, produce bezoars.