28G Queries and Answers. 



stomach, gall bladder, gall ducts, salivary ducts, and pineal gland. There 

 are nine or ten varieties : — 



1. Phosphate of lime, forming concretions in many of the Mammalia. 

 The bezoars of the pineal gland and salivary ducts are of this kind. Bezoars 

 of this species have occasionally been formed in fish. 



2. Phosphate of magnesia, semi-transparent and yellowish, specific gravity 

 2*16. This kind has been found in horses, and many of the Ruminantia; 

 though it is diffiicult to conceive whence the magnesia is obtained, as only 

 a minute portion of it enters into the composition of their food. 



.3. Triple phosphate, phosphate of ammonia and magnesia, composed of 

 concentric laminae, radiating from a centre, and rattling within like the 

 v2iJtites, or eagle-stone. This kind of bezoar is of a brown colour, and is 

 confined principally to herbivorous animals; as the elephant, horse, ass, &c. 

 The horse bezoar {Bezoar * equinum, or hippolite, as it was formerly called) 

 was generally composed of this triple phosphate. Dr. Watson has given us 

 an account of two bezoars of this kind taken from the intestines of a horse; 

 one of which weighed 15 lbs. 12oz., and the other 19 lbs. A very large one 

 of this kind was taken from the intestines of a horse belonging to Mr. 

 Hay ward of Brandon, Suffolk ; and there is now in the museum of Guy's 

 Hospital a bezoar of this description, weighing upwards of 7 lbs. The 

 Bezoar microcosmicum, human bezoar, or enterolite, was occasionally of 

 this variety (Goody vol. i. p. 211.) ; an instance of which is recorded in the 

 ease of a lady under the care of Dr. S. Fitzgerald of Mullingar. {Med. 

 Com.) 



4. Biliary. Colour reddish brown, found in the gall bladder of oxen 

 and sheep. This was called the Bezoar bovinum. It is very common in 

 the human species ; it has all the characters of inspissated bile, and is used 

 as a pigment by painters. 



5. Resinous. This variety, commonly called the Oriental bezoar was 

 procured chiefly in Malacca, from unknown animals, by traffickers in the 

 East, and was by them very often sold for ten times its weight of gold. 

 The Bezoar hjstricis, Bezoar porcinum, pietro del porco, or lapis malacensis 

 was said to be of this kind. It was found in the gall bladder of the Indian 

 porcupine, had a bitter resinous flavour, on being steeped in water com- 

 municated its bitterness to it, and was taken formerly as an aperient and 

 stomachic. Some specimens of the Occidental bezoar, taken from the 

 stomach or intestines of an animal of the goat or stag kind, a native of 

 Peru, were said to be of the resinous kind, but they were sometimes 

 also composed of the triple phosphate. That the Oriental and Occidental 

 bezoar occasionally consisted of resin and bile, there is very little doubt ; 

 but for the most part they are composed of inert vegetable matter. A 

 few of the Oriental bezoars analysed by Dr. Watson were of the latter 

 description (Philosojjh. Trans., vol. Ixxxviii. p. 46.); though it is highly 

 probable that these were not from the gall bladder, but from the stomach 

 or intestines. 



6. Fungous : consisting of pieces of the boletus igniarius swallowed by 

 some animal. 



7. Hairy. The one described by I. W. D. of Greenwich was probably of 

 this kind. They are by far the most common of all bezoars, and have 

 been found in a great number of animals, particularly in beasts of prey, on 

 account of the hair which they swallow with their food becoming agglu- 



* From pa, against, zakar, poison, Persian ; having been first employed 

 as an antidote, or counter-poison. Some derive the term from pazar, a 

 goat, Persian ; because the most anciently known bezoar stones were pro- 

 cured from the stomachs of goats feeding on the mountains of Persia. 



