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Another kind of Bezoar is brown or violet in colour, insoluble in 
alcohol, but it dissolves in’the Alkalies, and gives when exposed to the 
air a blood red purple liquid, this by distillation produces a yellow 
 sublimate of empyreumatic odour, M. Berthollet has found also a 
ligneous matter in some Bezoars. When heated, when pulverized, or 
when rubbed, the Bezoars emit a fragrant odour. In sawing through 
the middle a vegetable matter is sometimes found in their centre, 
which does for a nucleus or basis, and which is_ successfully 
hidden by Ammonio-Magnesian Phosphates mixed with a colouring 
vegetable extractive matter, and animal secretion; of the nature of 
the Bile ; this gives to the Bezoars that olive or green colour and that 
odour of musk which is characteristic of them. There is on the 
Molar teeth of some of these ruminants a coat of dark gilt colour, 
which is also noticed on the Bezoars of these animals. 
The wild “she goat” (Capra Agagrus), and the hollow horned 
ruminants, in which these stones are found, live on leaves and 
buds of shrubs, they sport themselves on the mountains, and 
frequent the solitary rocks. Their flesh has often a musked odour 
which imparts itself to these stony concretions of the stomach, and 
which depends probably on their bile. This becomes musked in 
passing to a certain state of decomposition. 
Fictitious Bezoars have been made of various materials. Some are 
made from Gypsum stained by some vegetable juice. 
Tobacco pipe clay tinged with ox-gall is commonly employed since 
it answers to two of the genuine tests, viz.: Ist a yellow tint to paper 
rubbed with chalk, 2nd green colour to paper rubbed over with quick 
lime. The vegetable stained do not answer to these tests. 
False Bezoars are also prepared with oyster shells, or eyes of the 
Crayfish, pulverized and mixed into a paste with gum water, anda little 
musk or ambergris, then they are formed into a ball, and dried, but 
they are distinguished from the true Bezoars in that they have not 
concentric and foliated layers, nor crystalline striz in their section, 
and they do not give an olive colour when they are rubbed on paper 
coated with lime or chalk. 
The Orientals attribute to these stones of animal origin some 
therapeutic properties which makes them objects of great price, it 
is scarcely necessary to say that these marvellous properties are only 
founded on superstition. 
