Bezoar Occidentale, c1745-1807

Description

Glass specie jar, with glass lid and paper contents label, containing specimens of Bezoar stones, Bezoar occidentale. From the Burges Collection.

Text on paper contents label reads ‘Catal. mat. med. p. 120. No. 14. Bezoar occidentale.’

Bezoar stones were calculi from the intestines of various animals. They were used to treat fevers and consumption.

Pomet, in his Compleat History of Druggs, says that Bezoars were used as ‘a Preservative from pestilential Air, and a Remedy for the Small-Pox, Measles, or other contagious Diseases. It is reckoned also proper against Vertigo’s, Epilepsies, Palpitation of the Heart, Jaundice, Cholick, Dysentery, Gravel, to procure Labour Pains, and against Poisons.’