KEPTILES AND SNAKE-STONES. 13 



that it destroys poisons. Dr. Davy, on examin- 

 ing what are called snake-stones in India, found 

 them to be Bezoars. The same kind of sub- 

 stance is known in the island of Ceylon under 

 the name of Pamboo Kaloo. Berthollet mentions 

 eight kinds of Bezoar, which are chiefly phos- 

 phates. These were deemed efficacious not only 

 when taken as medicine, but even when merely 

 carried about the person, so that credulous 

 people would hire them on particular occasions 

 for a ducat per day. A single Oriental Bezoar 

 has been known to sell for six thousand livres. 

 The goat Bezoar was found in the fourth stomach 

 of the Capra agagrus of Persia, and was said to 

 be oblong, of the size of a kidney-bean, shining, 

 and of a dark green colour. This was doubtless 

 the most esteemed as a snake-stone. 



An account, recently published, of one of these 

 snake-stones, which has great reputation in the 

 island of Corfu, thus describes the manner in 

 which it is employed :* 



When a person is bitten by a poisonous snake, the bite 

 must be opened by a cut of a lancet or razor longways, and 

 the stone applied within twenty-four hours. The stone then 

 attaches itself firmly on the wound, and when it has done its 

 office falls off ; the cure is then complete. The stone must 

 then be thrown into milk ; whereupon it vomits the poison 

 it has absorbed, which remains green upon the top of the 



P. M. Colquhoun, in All the Year Round, No. 139. 



