670 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
R. Where are the rubies found which you have told me about ? 
0. A few are found in Ceylon which are yery good, others come 
from Pegu, and it is said that they come from the country of Brama,^ 
which is very far distant. And this is the best information that I 
have. If I err you must pardon me, for I do not know all things 
thoroughly. 
COLLOQUY XLV. 
Da pedea. Bazae. 
[Bezoar, a name given to various intestinal calculi.] 
Called ha%ar {pad%ahr) by Persians {hudizahar or ha%ahr) by Arabs. 
Corruptly hezar in Europe. 
Garcia explains that bezoar was found in the stomachs of goats 
and sheep, the best quality being from Persia and Khorassan. It was 
also obtained in Malacca (Borneo ?), and in the Island of Vacas (cows) 
o:ff Cape Comorin.^ He says it was formed by concretions in successive 
layers, like those of an onion, on straws. The larger the stone the 
greater its medicinal virtue. One which he had weighed 8 drachms, 
and was sold with much difficulty for 32,000 reals in Portugal, but it 
had cost more in India. 
It was used as an antidote to melancholia and poison. Eich persons 
purged themselves with it twice a year, in March and September, and 
continue with doses of 10 grains for five successive mornings, in order 
to renew their youth. Generally it was esteemed as an aphrodisiac. 
Garcia commends it for itch, leprosy, ringworm, quartern fevers, 
&c. Taken in quantity it was supposed by some to be injurious. He 
says it was useful when placed in powder on poisonous wounds and 
bites, and in the treatment of sores arising from the plague. Doses of 
2 grains in rose water enfeebled the poison of smallpox and measles. 
[I think some of the reputed snake stones consisted of bezoar. In 
spite of the vast reputation it formerly enjoyed it is now regarded to 
be inert as a drug,] 
1 See for recent accounts of the Ceylon and Burmali sapphire and ruby mines 
Tavernier's Travels, English transL, vol. ii., Appendix, p. 465. 
2 Linschoten, vol. ii., p. 144, says it was near Cambay, and Tavernier (EngHsb 
trans, by V. Ball, vol. ii., p. 146) gives a full account of it. He mentions its being 
found at Eenquerry, a place not identified, in Golconda. 
