BEZOAR STONES 



287 



the town of Middelburg in Holland ; it was purchased and pre- 

 sented to the Emperor of Germany. Gesner gives a curious figure 

 of it, representing the animal as a comparatively colossal beast 

 submitting itself to the guidance of a dwarfish man. The habit of 

 " spitting " of the Laina is well known. Augustin de Zarate and 

 Buffon speak of the Lama as having no protection save this habit, 

 which is more than a mere ejection of saliva : the contents of the 



FIG. 149. Lama. Lama huanacos x T V. 



stomach are forcibly shot at the object of its annoyance. It can 

 also kick and bite. In the intestines (as in those of some other 

 mammals) are found Bezoar stones, or Bezards as they are variously 

 spelt. These were once valued in medicine, and even so lately as 

 1847 were, according to Gay, the historian of Chili, in vogue; 

 these concretions, comparable to the ambergris of the Whales, were 

 supposed to be an antidote to poison. 



Extinct Camels. The earliest cameloid type is the genus 

 Protylopus? of which we are acquainted with an imperfect skull 



1 Scs Wortman, Bull. Amer. Mia. Nat. Hist. x. 1898, p. 93. 



