THE SNAKE STONES. 3^5 



oHispring of Indian fable, and we find accordingly in the Sanfcrii 

 poets frequent allufion to the ftone in the head of the fnake, and in the 

 Characa and SufrvAa two medicai works of high authority and great 

 reputed antiquity, the "^ "JrRi* Serpamani or fnake gem, is cnumerat- 

 cd amongft the antidotes, and defignated alfo by the fynonime TTT^fiH 

 •Garamani or poifon ftone. The Mohammedan writers make fimilar 

 ^mention of the fnake ftone, which according to the author of the 

 Akhtiydr Bedai is found in the head of the Jjdi or viper: the author of 

 ithe Tohfet al Momenin calls it Hejar at Haiyak and defcribes the Haiyah 

 as a fort of fnake; the latter calls it alfo Marmokerehot fnake ftone, 

 and the former adds as another name Bddzehr^ov Bezoafj candderingit 

 as the animal fpecies of that celebrated alexipharmic, which appears in 

 general to be the fnake ftone of the eall, and which was one of the three 

 kinds examined by Dr. Davy, as well as one of thofe defcribed in the 

 communication referred to above, made bj Sir Hans/Sloane to the 

 ,^refident of the Royal Society. 



Ths Bezoar according to our medical writers was unknown to the 

 Gr^^ii, and was fir ft introduced to the knowledge oi Europe, by the 

 Arabic writers. There does not feem indeed to be any mention of it 

 in the works of Aristotle or of Pliny, though we have the authority 

 of Ibni Telmiz or Hebatallah, a chriftian phyfician who lived at the 

 court of the Abbaflide Khalif Motakki, about the middle of the loth 

 century, and the author of a voluminous medical work entitled Al 

 Moghni, * for its being known to the Greeks, as he cites Aristotle as 

 ftating its being brought from India and Chindo Another author alfo 



* This statement rests upon the authority of the author of the Tohfet al Momenin. D'Hb«« 



-BELOT however ascribes the great work->eutitle(l Al Moghni to Eatf. BeitAr, and aaother, Moghni 



fit lib— to the sou of Ebmi Talmiz, or Said B(x IlEa-fTAr.t.Au. They may both be right as Moghni 



implyiog, the satisiier or cooteatar, foimspartof the title of mtoy ircrks, especially oo mtiHciac 



2 O 



