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From: larry@kitty.UUCP (Larry Lippman)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.chem
Subject: Re: What's A Bezoar Like ???
Summary: You'd bezoar too with one of these stones in your gut...
Message-ID: <3588@kitty.UUCP>
Date: 4 Jan 90 04:28:09 GMT
References: <25567@cup.portal.com>
Organization: Recognition Research Corp., Clarence, NY
Lines: 36

In article <25567@cup.portal.com>, mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) writes:
> I've heard about a thing called a bezoar stone, which apparently comes from
> the stomach of some sort of goat.  It's reputed to absorb poison.
> 
> Anybody ever see one of these things?  Could it be polished like a rock,
> or is it more like a piece of dried manure?  Is it really effective for
> removing some kinds of poisons?  Where do they come form, and how much
> do they cost?

	Do you lie awake nights thinking of bizarre questions to pose to
the Net?  :-)

	In any event, you piqued my curiosity.  I checked a few contemporary
texts on pharmacognosy in my organization's library, but could find no
reference.  So, I checked a few "non-traditional" references that we
keep around, and found it listed in a 1918 edition of the "United States
Dispensatory".

	There are two varieties of bezoar: Western Bezoar (lapis bezoar
occidentalis) and Oriental Bezoar (lapis bezoar orientalis).  Both types
of bezoar are concretions of impure calicum phosphate which are found
in the stomach and intestines of animals.  The Dispensatory mentions
that bezoar has no useful value, but that it was previously believed
to have possessed various curative powers.

	I don't know where you can find bezoar, although you might ask
your neighborhood pharmacist.  :-)

	If you are looking for something similar in origin to bezoar,
you stand a better chance of obtaining ambergris.  You can probably find
a vendor in the OPD under the heading of perfume fixatives.

<> Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp. - Uniquex Corp. - Viatran Corp.
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