46 On some New Species of Animal Concretions. 



Chorasmia. Tavernier states that they likewise come from a 

 province of the kingdom of Golconda. The account as to the 

 exact situation of the stone is however not so clear. Most 

 writers indicate the maw or stomach : Kaempfer says it is 

 found in the pylorus, 'sive productior quarti, quern vocant 

 ventriculi fundus*,' and that the natives are in the habit of 

 ascertaining how many stones are contained in the stomach 

 by feeling through the parietes of the abdomen, the value of 

 the animal being considerably enhanced by their presence. 

 When recently taken from the animal, they are said to be 

 somewhat soft, or of the consistence of a hard-boiled egg, and 

 that in order to preserve them it was customary to place them 

 in the mouth, and retain them there until they acquired greater 

 hardness. 



"The Oriental Bezoar was not however confined to the wild 

 goats, or to the ruminant tribes, as the Pedra Bugia or Ape 

 stone also consists of ellagic acid. These concretions were 

 held in higher esteem than those from the Goat, and were ge- 

 nerally included, for the sake of preserving them, in a small 

 cavity scooped out of two portions of a very light wood, which 

 were held together by hoops wove from the twigs of the Ro- 

 tang cane. There is in the Museum a specimen preserved in 

 this manner. Kaempfer informs us that they were found in a 

 species of ape termed Antar by the Mongols, which he be- 

 lieves to be the Babianum cynocephalam. The composition 

 of these concretions renders their origin no longer a matter of 

 uncertainty, and confirms, in a very remarkable manner, the 

 statements of Tavernier and Kaempfer, that they are derived 

 from the juices of the plants on which the animals fed," 



MM. Merklein and Wohler have proposed that the word 

 ellagic should be changed for that of bezoaric acid, partly be- 

 cause the German word "Gall," when reversed, is not capable 

 of being converted into ellagic, and partly from its want of eu- 

 phony. If we were however, for the sake of euphony, to reject 

 all the inharmonious appellations which the industry of mo- 

 dern chemists has introduced into the science, we might alter 

 half the names at present in use; besides, as the ellagic acid 

 was first procured from the gall-nut by Chevreul and subse- 

 quently named by Braconnot, I think it a matter of courtesy 

 to adhere to its French derivation. The term bezoaric is 

 also peculiarly improper, inasmuch as it would imply that the 

 entire class of bezoars consisted of this peculiar acid. 

 I remain, dear Sir, 



Yours most truly, 

 New Bridge Street, Nov. 20, 1845. Thomas Taylor. 



* Op. cit. p. 400. 



