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]]
