New Species of Animal Concretions. 45 



presented to the Emperor Napoleon by the Shah of Persia. 

 They were of a greenish brown colour externally, and brown 

 within ; they had an oval figure, and their surface was highly 

 polished ; they were formed of irregular concentric layers, and 

 in the centre of all of them was some vegetable matter; their 

 sp. gr. = l*4-63. They were regarded by Berthollet as con- 

 sisting of the woody fibre [lignin) of the food of the animal, 

 and he conjectures that they must have been taken from the 

 stomach, on account of the little alteration which the vege- 

 table matters that formed their nucleus* had undergone. 



"The constituent of the ellagic acid calculus is likewise de- 

 scribed by John under the name of Bezoar stqff-\\ and Leo- 

 pold Gmelin thinks it probable that the calculi examined by 

 John were identical in composition with those analysed by 

 Berthollet |, and that they consisted of a species of ulmin 

 arising from the decomposition of woody fibre or lignin. 



" From the descriptions which Tavernier, Ksempfer, and 

 other Oriental travellers have given of the Oriental Bezoar, 

 corroborated by the analyses of Fourcroy and Berthollet, 

 there is no doubt that it is identical with the ellagic acid con- 

 cretion above described. The signs by which a true Oriental 

 Bezoar might be distinguished were, according to Tavernier, 

 by steeping it in hot water, and observing whether the liquid 

 became coloured, or the stone lost in weight. If either of 

 these occurred, the stone was to be regarded as fictitious : but 

 the best test was to apply a red-hot iron wire to the calculus, 

 when, if it melted and permitted the iron to enter, it was cer- 

 tainly fictitious. Another test consisted in smearing a piece 

 of paper with chalk, and rubbing the calculus over it. The 

 genuine stone always left a greenish mark. All these criteria 

 would be fulfilled by the ellagic acid calculus, but by none 

 of the other species §. 



" This species of concretion was the most valued of the Be- 

 zoars, and is denominated by Kaempfer the 'verus et pre- 

 tiosus Pasahr,' from which word, by a corruption of sound, 

 he believes the word Bezoar to have been derived. 



" With regard to the origin of this concretion, we have the 

 fullest and most satisfactory evidence. W. Methold, Fryer, 

 Tavernier and Ksempfer all agree that it is taken most fre- 

 quently from the alimentary canal of a species of wild goat 

 termed Pasen by the Persians, which inhabits the mountainous 

 ridges in Persia, particularly in the province of Chorasaan or 



* Mcmoi?-es de la Societi d'Jrcueil, torn. ii. p. 448. 



t Chem. Schr. in. 38. J Handbuch der Chemie, B. ii. S. 828, 1488. 



§ In the Sloanian MS. Catalogue all the ellagic acid calculi were termed 

 East Indian or Oriental Bezoars. 



