Izvorni znanstveni ~lanak
Acta med-hist Adriat 2014; 12(1);77-98
Original scientiic paper
UDK: 615.9(091)(391/399)
THE BEZOAR STONE: A PRINCELY
ANTIDOTE, THE TÁVORA SEQUEIRA
PINTO COLLECTION – OPORTO
BEZOARI U KOLEKCIJI TÁVORA SEQUEIRA
PINTO U OPORTU (PORTUGAL)
Maria Do Sameiro Barroso1
Summary
Bezoar stones, once used as universal antidotes and panaceas, but currently regarded as
costly and useless medicines of the past, are a major milestone in the history of toxicology.
Arabic physicians had been using bezoars in medicine from the 8th century onwards. In the
16th century, the Portuguese controlled bezoar trade from India, and the Portuguese doctors
Garcia de Orta, Amatus Lusitanus, and Cristobal Acosta introduced the medicinal use of
Oriental bezoars to European medical literature. Some criticism aside, leading European
doctors prescribed bezoars mainly as powerful antidotes. Five bezoars that now adorn the
Távora Sequeira Pinto Collection in Oporto testify to the allure and glory of bezoars at the
height of their golden age, when they equalled the splendour of gems and noble minerals that
dominated the Eastern and Western lithotherapy.
The end of the 18th century marked the end of ancient panaceas. This article focuses on the
therapeutic and apotropaic use of bezoars.
Key words: bezoar; Arabic medicine; history of toxicology; history of medicine; history of art
1
Medicine Doctor, Portuguese Medical Association, Center for the History of Medicine,
Board member. Av. Gago Coutinho, 151, 1749-084 Lisbon, Portugal.
Contact: msameirobarroso@gmail.com
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Introduction
Bezoars are tightly packed, partly digested agglomerations of hair or vegetable matter; hence the names tricho- or phytobezoars. Trichobezoars may
weigh up to 2.7 kg and are most commonly associated with neuropsychiatric
patients. Phytobzoars are almost always seen in patients who have undergone
the Bilroth I or II gastrectomy, especially when accompanied by vagotomy.
Hypochloridia (diminished antral motility), and incomplete mastication
are the main predisposing factors, as well as diabetic gastroparesis. Most bezoars cause no symptoms, although postprandial fullness, nausea and vomiting, peptic pain, and gastro-intestinal bleeding may occur. Usually bezoars
are detected with x-rays and may be mistaken for tumours. At endoscopy,
bezoars display an unmistakeable irregular surface and may range in colour
from yellow-green to gray-black. Diagnosis is conirmed if endoscopic biopsy
inds hair or plant material. Bezoars have also been demonstrated by abdominal ultrasound and CT scan [1].
As they are mainly produced by mammals, bezoars are also a veterinary
problem. The word has its origin in Farsi: pad means to expel, zahr means
poison. In ancient Persia, bezoars were believed to have powerful magical
and apotropaic properties.
Bezoar Stones in Ancient Persia
Bezoar stones are perhaps the most exquisite animal medicines that came
from the East. Cyril Elgood, a historian of Persian medicine, describes them
as the best gift to European medicine [2]. The history of the stone is long and
glorious. It was used in the East before Islam, as it is mentioned in ancient
Hebrew writings as Bel Zaard (The Master) [3]. Ancient East had a particularly high regard for precious stones and their medicinal properties. Eastern
lithotherapy established itself as one of the most outstanding therapeutic
areas.
Arabic medical literature had been referring to bezoars since the 8th century, mainly as alexipharmaca. Yuhannā Māsawayh (777-857), known in
Latin Europe as Mesuë, Mesuë Senior, Janus Damascenus or Serapion, was
one of the irst who mentioned its use. His father was a pharmacist. He ran
a medical school in Baghdad and was the court physician to Caliph Harun
al-Rashid. His works had a great impact on Western medicine. Nine Latin
editions of his works in the British Museum are dated from 1462 to 1623 [4].
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Relying on anonymous sources, he described the bezoar as an alexipharmic against lethal poisonings and dangerous scorpion and snake bites, mainly used in Syria and India [5].
Rhazes (855-925), the greatest Iran-born practitioner of medicine in Islam,
successfully combined his knowledge of chemistry with medicine. He wrote
almost two hundred treatises on medicine, science, and philosophy. His
book, Kitab al-Asar (Book of Secrets) was a major work on mineralogy. He was
the irst to classify his materia medica according to animal, vegetable, and
mineral origin [6]. Rhazes mentions the use of bezoar (Bezabar) as an antidote
together with viper theriac and mithridate [7]. Theriac was an elaborate mixture of countless ingredients and was based on mithridate, which itself was
composed of ifty-four ingredients, according to the ancient encyclopedist
Pliny the Elder (A. D. 23-79) [8].
Most Arabic authors wrote on bezoars. One of the most important is Abu
al-Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni (973-after 1050), a Shiite born
in Persia, who lived in India, where he learned Hindu and was acquainted
with Sanskrit literature. He was a mathematician, philosopher, astronomer,
geographer, and encyclopaedist. His remarkable treatise Kitab al-Jamahir i
ma’rifat al-jawahir (Book on the Multiple Knowledge of Precious Stones) is devoted exclusively to gems, minerals, and metals. Al-Biruni collected material
from Greek, Roman, Syriac, Indian, and Islamic sources and complemented
it with his own observations. Here is what he says about the bezoar:
«As a matter of fact, this stone should have been the costliest among stones,
for, whereas jewels are things of the body and adornment, and are of no use in
body ailments, the bezoar stone guards the body and the soul and saves them
from being harmed.» [9].
Al-Biruni cited the descriptions of bezoars by previous authors and
listed diferent methods of testing its quality. Some bezoars are described
as pale stones with white and green hues. They were associated with India
and China. Others are described as white, yellow, green, dusty, and abrasive. Other stones had a similar appearance. Al-Biruni also instructs how to
distinguish true bezoars from forgeries. He recounts stories about bezoars
and provides an extremely accurate description of its physical characteristics, provenance, geographic region of the goat from which it came from,
and factors that conditioned its production within the animal’s entrails. He
ofers etymological explanations and describes how bezoars are formed in
stags (and goats) that eat snakes. Apparently, by eating snakes the animals
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acquired tolerance to snake poison. Al-Biruni describes the “animal bezoar”
as an elongated acorn or unripe date, with a peel like an onion, and something like green grass of blackish to green hue in the centre [10].
One of the irst mentions of the bezoar stone in European scientiic literature dates back to around 1140 A.D., in the work of Ibn Zuhr or Avenzoar in
the Latinised version (1091-1161), an Arab physician of Seville [11].
Bezoars and precious stones were highly prized by Persian, Arab, and
Jewish physicians as antidotes. Referring to Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar), Moses
Maimonides (1135-1208), born from a Jewish family in Cordoba during the
period of Muslim Al-Andaluz, claimed that emeralds were highly efective
against all poisons as they induced emesis, just like terra sigillata. This eiciency was equalled only by bezoars and ethrog seeds, as follows:
«The eicacy of the following three remedies has been proven by experience
beyond a doubt for all types of animal, vegetable and mineral poisoning:
ethrog seeds, emerald and animal bezoar.» [12].
He noted that the bezoar was not mentioned by Galen. His description
of bezoars is similar to Al-Biruni’s: acorn-shaped, dark green concretions of
several layers. About its origin, he provided one mythical and one empiricist
explanation:
“Some people say that it is found in the eyes of rams in the East; others say
that it is found in their gallbladder and this is true” [13].
He reported about a mineral bezoar found in Egypt that had many colours.
However, his experiments with this stone against scorpion bites showed that
it was not eicient. The eiciency of the bezoar of animal origin, on the other
hand, was proved by its use as powder mixed with in oil, when applied as a
plaster on the site of the bite, or drank in a beverage [14].
The irst Persian monography devoted entirely to bezoars was written by
Imád-ul-Din, who collected the opinions of all the earlier writers on the subject. The true stone was described as a calculus found in the belly of a wild
goat that inhabited the north-east corner of Persia [5].
Bezoars in European medicine
In 1485, inspired by the German herbarium a German physician Johann
Wonnecke von Caub or Johannes de Cuba (Latin name) published Hortus
Sanitatis(Gart der Gesundheit in German or Garden of Health in English) with
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Figure 1 – A poisoned man treated with bezoar. Johannes de Cuba, 1491
Slika 1 – liječenje otrovanog muškarca bezoarom. Johannes de Cuba, 1491
Peter Schöfer as publisher. At the time, it was the leading therapeutic treatise of the Middle Ages, as it contains a large number of ingredients introduced by Arabic authors. It mentions the bezoar stone among new ingredients in reference to Serapion and Rhazes and explains the Persian origin of
the word and its properties as an antidote [16] (Fig. 1).
The Italian doctor and botanist Pietro Andrea Mattioli or Matthiolus
(1501-1577), the most important 16th century translator of Dioscorides, dedicated an extensive chapter to the medicinal use of precious stones and
earths. Drawing on Arabic medical literature, he described the bezoar stone
as a powerful antidote [17].
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Figure 2- Garcia de Orta, 1563 title page. Private collection (46)
Slika 2 – Garcia de Orta, naslovnica iz 1563. Privatna zbirka (46)
The Portuguese and Oriental Bezoars
After the arrival of the Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama (c. 1460-1524)
to Calicut, India in 1498, the Portuguese settled in Goa and started to trade
numerous exotic products. Bezoars were amongst the most exotic until the
18th century, as they seduced the nobles and kings and allegedly protected
them from poisoning and evils.
The irst printed book by a Portuguese Jewish physician Garcia da Orta
(1490-1568) gathered an extensive body of new material. He learned so much
about local pharmacological ingredients and Asian medical traditions that
he could compete with local physicians for the attention of their wealthy patients [18].
The bezoar stone was irst mentioned by Orta in Colloquy 17 as the best
treatment of a very serious disease, Mordexi Seco (Cholera morbus), and was
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described to act as an analeptic, restoring severe luid loss and alleviating
haemodynamic shock due to severe diarrhoea [19].
In Colloquy 45 Orta described the bezoar (Pazam in Farsi) as an onion-like,
layered formation around a small straw in the paunch of the male goat from
Khorasan and Persia. Orta also reported on bezoars from Ormuz, Cow Island
(Ilha das Vacas), near Cape Comorin and Malacca that were used against poison and melancholia.
He reported that all wealthy persons in India had been taking bezoars (10
grains in rose water) after purging every morning for ive days in March and
September to preserve youth. Bezoar stones were also useful as a powder for
poisonous wounds, poisonous bites, and open plague pustules. The bezoar
was said to protect against plague and to cure it and to treat very virulent
measles [20].
Modern medical science has reached a consensus that plague (Black
Death) was mainly bubonic, spread by rodents, chiely rats. The medieval
explanation blamed it on the contact with reptiles, snakes or serpents in particular. The snake was believed to be as much infective as curative. In the
medieval Europe, a theriac containing viper meat was the most prized and
the most expensive of all medicines used to prevent and cure plague [21].
In Colloquy 58, Orta mentions a stone found in porcupine gallbladder:
clear vermillion, bitter to the taste, and with a touch like French soap [22].
João Rodrigues de Castelo Branco (1511-1568) was a Portuguese Jewish
physician born in the city of Castelo Branco, who studied Medicine at the
University of Salamanca and indulged in the study of medicinal plants and
herbs. He practiced medicine in Lisbon for a short while and then left for
Antwerp in 1534, where he lived for seven years. During his stay, he wrote
commentaries on Dioscorides’ Books I and II, on plants from Portugal, and
on the pharmaceutical ingredients brought by the Portuguese from the newly discovered lands. He never returned to Portugal because of the persecution to Jews by the Inquisition established in Portugal by King John III in
1539. He later changed his name into Amatus Lusitanus [23].
Amatus reported on bezoar import from India. He cited the Arabic physician, Avenzoar, who testiied to the eicacy of bezoar stones in his treatise
Theisir. Once, when he thought that he was dying, he managed to recover
through the use of that antidote. The medicine was prepared by dissolving
the weight of three barley grains of bezoar in ive ounces of pumpkin water.
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Figure 3 - Amatus Lusitanus. 1553 title page. Library of the Faculty of
Medicine, University of Lisbon. (47)
Slika 3 – Amatus Lusitanus, naslovnica iz 1553. Knjižnica Medicinskog fakulteta
Sveučilišta u Lisabonu (47)
Another patient sufering from jaundice because of excessive bile activity
took the antidote to ight and eradicate the condition. Bezoar stones were also
used to treat malignant fevers and to induce vomiting and sweating. Amatus
also reported on the successful use of a bezoar (lapis bezoarticum) against sublimate poisoning. The stone was taken from the stomach of an Indian goat
and induced powerful emesis (together with unicorn horn? scrapes and oil).
After vomiting, he also used theriac, sour cider, Cretan scorzonera, and a
concoction made of emeralds, terra sigilata, and Armenian earth [24] (Fig. 3).
Cristovão da Costa or Cristobal Acosta (c. 1525-1593), also a Portuguese
physician, born in Cape Verde, provided interesting information on bezoars,
which he considered most efective against all kinds of poisons when taken
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Figure 4 - Cristobal Acosta, 1578 title page. Library of the Faculty of
Medicine, University of Lisbon
Slika 4 – Cristobal Acosta, naslovnica iz 1578. Knjižnica Medicinskog fakulteta
Sveučilišta u Lisabonu
orally or applied to the skin. Bezoars had diferent shapes, colours, and sizes.
Some would have the shape of nuts or walnuts, others resembled eggs, while
some were triangular or looked like chestnuts or cylinders. Their colour varied from dark-green to aubergine, from yellowish to light green. Acosta also
provides new information and a description of bezoars brought from Peru.
(Fig. 4). His While one of his etymologies of the word and the explanation of
its origin in goat entrails is similar to Orta’s, Acosta also provides interesting
etymological alternatives that derive the word “bezoar” either from Pazam
(the animal that engenders it) or Belzahar or Badzahr (bezoar stone)or from
the corruption of the word “bazaar”(which suggests the meaning “market
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stone”). Acosta was also concerned with forgeries. He conveyed some ways
of distinguishing the real from fake stones. The stone was found easily in
Persia, Arabia, and China. It was used against all kinds of poisoning, quartan fevers, severe febrile diseases, leprosy, scabies, itching, measles, cholera,
all the pestilent and contagious diseases, and melancholy. It was also beneicial for the weak and debilitated. The use of bezoars to facilitate parturition, to expel the secundines, and to clean the neonate is also mentioned.
They also helped in the treatment of ascariasis, serpent and other poisonous
animal bites, poisonous wounds, and empyema. Acosta also observed that
Moors prized the stone so much that only noblemen could aford it [25].The
virtues of the stone were appreciated by Acosta’s contemporaries, Andres
Mathiolo and Pedro de Olma.
Monardes and the Occidental Bezoar
Spanish botanist and physician from Sevilla Nicholás Monardes (c.15121588) presented bezoar stones from the recently discovered New World of
the Central and South America, Peru mountains to be more speciic. He
also referred to a great quantity of forgeries due to the high demand of these
fabulous stones and their price (Monardes 1574). The bezoars from Peru varied in shape and colour but were similar to the stones brought from India.
The medicinal properties and use were also similar to the Indian bezoars,
as described by Orta, Lusitano, and Acosta, and the stones were prescribed
to treat heart diseases, all kinds of poisoning and animal poisonous bites,
melancholy, pestilent fevers, scabies, itching skin diseases, empyema, quartan fever, and ascariasis. They were also used twice a year, after purging, to
maintain health. In his inal comment, Monardes noted that bezoars were
useful in the treatment of all severe and strange diseases. They always helped
and never harmed, he said [26].
The Flemish botanist and physician, Charles de Écluse or Carolus Clusius
(1526-1609) translated the works of Orta [27], Acosta [28], and Monardes into
Latin [29], the scientiic language of Europe until the 19th century, spreading the knowledge of these authors and their contributions to medicine and
pharmacy. The editions of these works include Clusius’ annotations.
Bezoars and the Experimentalism
In the 16th century, medical knowledge was regarded in the light of experiment. Anatomical studies replaced the darkness and superstition of the
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previous centuries and gradually pushed back Arabic inluence in Europe
[30].
The scientist who was the most critical of the medicinal use of bezoars
was Ambroise Paré (1510-1590) one of the most important surgeons of the 16th
century. He distrusted medicines taken from ancient egyptian mummies
and bezoars. In 1575, he carried out an experiment to verify the efects of bezoars as antidotes. He convinced a cook that had been caught stealing silver
cutlery to take poison and then treatment with the bezoar stone. Six hours
after having taken the poison and the beverage containing the bezoar scraps,
the poor cook died in terrible agony. Paré concluded that the bezoar stone
was not efective in every case of poisoning, contrary to the widespread belief [31].
Physician and philosopher Andreas Bacci (1524-1600), who was very interested in the study of rerum naturalia (natural things, which usually meant
unicorn horns, bezoar stones, and other animal products), reported higher
therapeutic eicacy. He authored a work, dedicated to Emperor Rudolf II
(1552-1612), about the medicinal properties of precious stones, including bezoars. The work, based on Theophrastus Lapidary [32] and the Cyrannides
[33] puts together the scientiic knowledge and the tradition of magic and reports cases of successful use of the bezoar stone. He gives an account of a
young prisoner who was given arsenic and then a beverage with the bezoar.
The young man recovered completely and was set free [34].
Despite criticism, a learned professor and Swiss doctor Caspar Bauhin
(1511-1582) wrote an extensive monograph on bezoar stones, in which he
claims that doctors were forced to prescribe bezoars because the noblemen
and bankers held them in great esteem. The demand for bezoars was such
that the market was looded with forgeries [35].Caspar Bauhin cited the
ancient authors who wrote on stones produced by animal tears, and summarised Arabic, Portuguese, and other contemporary medical literature on
the characteristics of bezoars according to their animal, geographical, and
mythical origin (in animal tears) and their therapeutic efects. Bauhin also
studied Indian bezoars from Malacca, German bezoars, mineral bezoars and
Occidental bezoars from Peru [36].
Despite widespread use, bezoars appeared as something extraneous and
unfamiliar. Laurens Catelan (1568?-1642), a French apothecary, expressed the
feeling of strangeness and the lack of consensus about their beneits [37].
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In 1631, French physician Philebert Guybert (1579-1633) was very critical of
the medicinal powers attributed to bezoar stones. He reviewed early Arabic,
Portuguese, Spanish, and contemporary works, recalling Ambroise Paré and
experiences from an experiment carried out on convicted criminals by Louis
Guyon and Mattias Vuyzers. Poison was given to two convicts; one was given bezoar stone, and they both died. Guybert did not name the poison or the
given amounts of either the poison or bezoar [38].He did not use any systematic method to analyse bezoar properties and efects. His last argument was
that bezoars were very expensive, enriching those who traded in them, and
concluded that bezoars were unknown and foreign medicines. He advised
that it would be safer to use common and proven remedies [39].
Bezoars in Magic and Art
According to the tradition of Greek medicine, the stones were to be administered internally or to be worn as amulets with magical properties [41].
Four protocols had been established as efective and involved touching the
stones, wearing them, ingesting them in a drink, and looking at them [42].
These protocols were formulated in a poem by the French poet and monk
Philippe de Thaon at the beginning of the 12th century [43].
Pur le tocher, pur le porter,
Pur le beivre, pur l’esguarder.
Ces quatre maneres posad
Deus, grant signiiance [i] ad;
E ço dirrai en autre livre,
Se Jhesu Christ me leissa vivre...
Touching, carrying,
Drinking, regarding:
Four ways of achievement;
God will grant fulilment;
In another book I’ll narrate
If Jesus Christ allows my fate).
By touching, carrying and looking at the magic use was called for.
Drinking meant the pharmacological use. The stones were crushed into
powder to make a beverage. Health was the summum bonum. To ensure this
most precious of gifts, men, women, and children would resort to prayers, astrology, magic, and medicine [43].The stones were carried on a ring, a bracelet
or a necklace. The commonest use of precious stones and similar substances
used in jewels was not against disease but against poison [44].
Bezoars, regarded as powerful amulets and talismans, became indispensable in maintaining health and protecting against poisoning. German physician Christof Hyeble of Constance recommended in a letter to a wealthy
88
banker, Philip Edouard Fugger (1546-1615), that everybody should buy a bezoar, no matter the efort or cost [45].
The Távora Sequeira Pinto Collection (Oporto)
Portuguese art collector, lawyer, university professor, and businessman
Álvaro Sequeira Pinto inherited his passion for India and the history of
Portuguese expansion from his maternal grandparents. His rich collection
includes Indo-Portuguese jewellery, consisting of exotic objects such as bezoars, unicorn horns, coconuts, and a Narwhal tooth. Indo-Portuguese furniture and Portuguese and Flemish paintings and sculptures are also part of
his collection.
Jewellery making, being one of the oldest of the decorative arts, relects
deep human love of objects with intrinsic beauty and the superstitious need
to reinforce human powers through things that are longer-lasting and more
mysterious than Man [46].
Although the bezoars were not particularly beautiful, they were valued as
much as gems and noble metals. Five Oriental bezoars from the 16th, 17th, and
18th century embellished with Indo-Portuguese iligree illustrate the glory of
bezoars as exotic jewels and medicines. Oriental bezoars found in monkeys
and porcupines (lapis bezoar orientalis) were the most expensive [47].
Bezoars were worn as amulets on pendants or set as the main stone in
pieces of jewelry specially designed for nobles. From the 16th century onwards, bezoars and Goa stones were often kept in elaborate and costly spherical or ovoid gold and silver boxes, designed to hang on a chain or sit on a
three-legged stand [48].These artiicial bezoars, invented by the Portuguese
Jesuit Gaspar António in the middle of the 17th century, were as costly as the
real bezoars [49].
Távora Sequeira Pinto’s Oriental bezoar collection includes three pendants, a bezoar mounted on a gold iligree stand decorated with coral, and a
bezoar in a silver iligree container. Their exact origin is unknown.
The irst bezoar (Fig. 5) is shaped like a fruit. It has a brownish colour
and irregular surface and is attached to four branches of beautiful IndoPortuguese gold iligree. The upper part consists of two rows of small leaves,
connected to a hanging loop. The iligree work is similar to a piece from the
Kunshistorishes Museum in Vienna (catalogue no. KK. 996).
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Figure 5 - Oriental bezoar mounted on Indo-Portuguese golden iligree
pendant. 16th century. Size: height 9.4 cm, diameter 6.1 cm. Távora Sequeira
Pinto Collection (Oporto)
Slika 5 – Istočnjački bezoar na indo-portugalskom iligranskom privjesku iz 16.
stoljeća. Dimenzije: visina 9,4 cm, promjer 6,1 cm. Kolekcija Távora Sequeira
Pinto (Oporto)
The second bezoar (Fig. 6) is also mounted on a very graceful, fruitshaped pendant. The bezoar is brown.
The third bezoar (Fig. 7) is an irregular dark brown ovoid attached to a
gold wire frame and a gold chain.
The fourth bezoar (Fig. 8) is whitish, mounted on a gold iligree stand,
and decorated with a coral on the top.
The ifth bezoar (Fig. 9) is dark green and spherical, placed in a silver iligree container. The silver box is similar to two Goa stone containers kept
in the Wellcome Trust in London (catalogue nos. A642467 and A642470,
respectively) [50].
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Fig. 6 - Oriental bezoar mounted on Indo-Portuguese golden iligree
pendant in the form of a fruit. 17th century. Size: height: 5.8 cm, diameter 8
cm. Távora Sequeira Pinto Collection (Oporto).
Slika 6 – Istočnjački bezoar na indo-portugalskom zlatnom iligranskom privjesku
u obliku voća iz 17. stoljeća. Dimenzije: visina 5,8 cm, promjer 8 cm. Kolekcija
Távora Sequeira Pinto (Oporto)
Gold and silver were more than material on which the bezoar was placed
or clamped. These noble metals had been used in medicine for their antiseptic properties and had been invested with a strong symbolic charge [51].
Coral was also appreciated since the Antiquity. Pliny describes coral as
an adornment and a protective amulet among Indians and Celts. He also reported on its medicinal use in treating bladder troubles and fevers [52].
Chemical analysis and classification of Bezoars
The end of the 18th century saw the decline of unicorn horns, bezoars,
gem electuaries, and other ancient panaceas like the theriac. The eicacy of
the theriac was questioned by one of the best doctors of his time William
Heberden (1710-1801), who published a satirical pamphlet “Anti-Teriaka” [53].
His critical analysis led to its abandonment [54]. Years later, French nobleman
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Fig. 7 - Oriental bezoar stone
pendant, attached to a golden chain.
17th century. Size: height: 6.4 cm,
diameter 3.8 cm. Távora Sequeira
Pinto Collection (Oporto)
Slika 7 – Privjesak s istočnjačkim
bezoarom na zlatnom lancu. 17. stoljeće.
Dimenzije: visina 6,4 cm, promjer
3,8 cm. Kolekcija Távora Sequeira
Pinto (Oporto)
Fig. 8 – Oriental bezoar stone
mounted on a golden iligree stand,
decorated with a coral branch on
the top. 18th century. Size: height
25.6 cm, diameter 9 cm. Távora
Sequeira Pinto Collection (Oporto)
Slika 8 – Istočnjački bezoar na zlatnom
iligranskom stalku ukrašenom
koraljnom granom. 18. stoljeće.
Dimenzije: visina 25,6 cm, promjer
9 cm. Kolekcija Távora Sequeira Pinto
(Oporto)
and chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794) challenged ancient beliefs and superstitions.
Lavoisier’s friend Joseph Louis Proust, also a chemist and a pharmacist
who lived in exile in Spain, was the irst to report analytical indings on
Peruvian bezoars in a letter to chemist and doctor Jean d’Arcet (1724-1801).
He established their origin from the animals of South America such as llamas, tarugas, and guanacos. These bezoars were big, yellow, earthy, formed
in concentric layers of varied thickness, rough and brittle in consistency,
around a foreign body that could be a grain of sand or a leaf. They had a
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Fig. 9 – Spherical oriental bezoar within a silver Indo-Portuguese iligree
container. 17th century. Size: diameter of bezoar 6,5 cm; diameter of the
container 9 cm. Távora Sequeira Pinto Collection (Oporto).
Slika 9 – Okrugli istočnjački bezoar u indo-portugalskoj srebrnoj iligranskoj
kutijici iz 17. stoljeća. Dimenzije: promjer bezoara 6,5 cm, promjer kutijice 9 cm.
Kolekcija Távora Sequeira Pinto (Oporto).
strong smell of amber. If burned, they smelled of animals and the remnants
were a mixture of earth and charcoal. Reacting with sulphuric acid, these
bezoars released selenite and phosphoric acid. Proust was told by a Spanish
traveller that the natives took bezoars from animal bellies but he did not
know how the bezoars were formed [55].
By 1831, bezoars were already classiied according to their chemical composition. The bezoar was a formation that incorporated concretions in the
intestines, gallbladder, gall ducts, salivary ducts, and pineal gland of animals. Ten varieties were described. Chemically, they mainly consisted of
phosphates, resins, ibres, and hair [56].
Recently, R. van Tassel analysed the composition of bezoars from the
Henri van Heurck collection. About 75 specimens of Occidental bezoars
were brushite and/or whitelockite concretions (34 more or less complete concretions and 5 fragments), three were calcite concretions and 30 calcite pebbles. Seven more or less complete Oriental bezoars required further chemical analysis, described in detail. Ellagic acid was identiied in all of them [57].
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Ellagic acid is formed in the human body and the body of mammals, and is of
vegetable origin. Ellagitannin, contained in fruit like cranberry, raspberry,
and pomegranate have antioxidant, anti-mutagenic, anti-tumoral, and anti-carcinogenic properties, and can alleviate the symptoms of major chronic
diseases [58]. These properties may be related to the use of Oriental bezoars
to preserve youth, as described by Garcia de Orta [59].
Bezoars: ancient and current toxicology
The end of the 18th century brought new scientiic insights into the paradox of toxicology. The importance of the dose-response paradigm was
clear to Paracelsus (1493-1541) and still remains a motto of toxicologists: “All
substances are poisons; there is none which is not a poison. The right dose
diferentiates a poison and a remedy “ [60]. However, this concept was not
understood immediately. Current management of acute poisoning requires
intensive supportive therapy. Speciic antidotes are seldom available. Few
genuine antidotes exist in practice. Those antidotes that are available are
life-saving. Its precursors were adsorbent clays used in the Antiquity [61].
Bezoars could also act as adsorbents or chelating agents. In a recent investigation, bezoar stones immersed in an arsenic-laced solution actually removed the poison. They diferently but efectively reacted with two toxic
compounds of arsenic, arsenate and arsenite. Arsenate was removed by being exchanged for phosphate in brushite, a crystalline structure found in the
stones, and arsenite bonded to sulphur compounds in the protein of degraded hair, a key component of bezoars [62].
Conclusion
Bezoars were costly medicines, very appreciated as antidotes by the
Arabic authors from the 7th until the end of the 17th century. Bezoars were
also used as amulets and were worked into ine pieces of jewellery. In the 18th
century, chemical studies challenged ancient beliefs and superstitions. The
establishment of more efective therapies and the chemical revolution led to
the abandonment of theriacs, bezoars, and the Hippocratic therapies, and
bezoars became beautiful relics of the past. However, some pharmacological
activity has been conirmed in the treatment of poisoning in pre-scientiic
times.
94
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Sažetak
Bezoari – nekad univerzalni protuotrov i panaceja, a danas smatrani skupim i beskorisnim
lijekom iz prošlosti – imaju su značajno mjesto u povijesti toksikologije. Arapski su liječnici
rabili bezoare u medicinske svrhe još od 8. stoljeća. U 16. stoljeću, kad su trgovinu bezoarima
držali Portugalci, liječnici Garcia de Orta, Amatus Lusitanus i Cristobal Acosta predstavili su europskoj medicini primjenu istočnjačkih bezoara u terapeutske svrhe. Zanemare li se
određene kritike, vodeći su europski liječnici bezoare mahom propisivali kao snažne protuotrove. Pet izložaka iz kolekcije Távora Sequeira Pinto u Oportu svjedoči o privlačnosti i slavi
bezoara na vrhuncu njihova zlatnog doba, kada su po cijenjenosti bili izjednačeni s dragim
kamenjem i mineralima rabljenim u istočnjačkoj i zapadnoj litoterapiji.
Kraj XVIII. stoljeća donio je i kraj primjene antičkih panaceja. Ovaj je članak posvećen
terapijskim i apotropaičnim primjenama bezoara.
Ključne riječi: bezoar; arapska medicina; povijest toksikologije; povijest medicine; povijest
umjetnosti
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank Dr Álvaro Figueiredo for his kind revision of the manuscript, Professor
Carneiro de Moura, the head of the Lisbon Faculty of Medicine Library, for his kind permission to reproduce the images from the Library books, and Dr Alvaro Sequeira Pinto for his
kind permission to reproduce the images of the bezoar stones in his collection.
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