BEZOAR

(Persian, pazaTj a goat, or pazachar, against poison), a concretion or cdculus, of an orbicular or oval form, met with in the stomach, gallbladder, salivary ducts, and pineal gland, but especially in the intestines of certain aniTnals of the order Ruminant i a. Nine varieties of bezoars have been enumerated. They differ greatly in composition, but they may be divided into those which consist mainly of mineral and those which consist of organic matter. The true oriental bezoars, obtained from the gazelle, belong to the second cla . When broken they have a waxy appearance, they are devoid of odour and tas to, and bum away, leaving little ash. There are two kinds; one, consisting of ellagic add, has a specific gravity 1*1; the other, of lithofellic acid, has a specific gravity 1*6, and is greener in colour. They were formerly celebrated for their supposed medicinal virtues, and distinguished by the name of the countries from which they came, or the animals in which they were found. They were considered as highly alexipharmic; so much so that other concretions, supposed to po e the same virtues, obtained the name of bezoar dict. So efiicacious were tiiese once thought that they were eagerly bought for ton times their weight in gold. Besides being taken internally, they were worn aroimd the neck as preservatives from contagion. For this purpose it is said that in Portugal it was customary to iiire them at the price of about ten shillings per day. It is almost needle to add that the accoimts of their extraordinary virtues must now be considered as totally fabulous. A strange origin was a igned to the hexoar by some of the old naturalists. The oriental stags, when oppre ed with age and infirmity, were said to feed npon serpents, which restored their youthful vigour. To counteract the poison, which by this means was absorbed into their system, they plunged into some running stream, leaving tiieir heads only above water. In this situation a viscous fluid distilled from their eyes, which was indurated by the heat of the sun, and formed the bezoar. The great value of the bezoar at one time gave birth to many imitations of it, and various tests have been proposed to detect the artificial stones. The following cruel and absurd one is given by Clusius: — Thread a needle, and draw the thread through a leaf plucked from a yew-tree; then pa the needle through a dog's foot, and leave the thread in the wound, when 3ie dog becomes convulsed, and appears dying, mix some scrapings of bezoar with water, and the moisten stone the is genuine.^ animal's mouth with it; if he recover ^ BHAGAVAD-GITA (that is, Kerdatums from the Iktty)f the title of a reb'gio-philosophical didactic poem interwoven as an episode in the great Indian epic of the MahAbhfirata. It occupies in this work a very remarkable position, being introduced at the moment when a battle is about to commence between the armies of the Kurus and their kinsmen the Pandus; and it is supposed to be recited by the deity himself, under the form of Krishna, to Arjuna, one of the Pandus, whose charioteer he is. The poem consists of eighteen books, in which are espounded, with as much clearne of thought as elegance of expre ion, a complete system of Indian religious philosophy. When and by whom the poem was composed cannot be determined with certainty, but it is probably to be referred to the first centuries after Christ. It enjoys a high reputation in India, many commentaries on it have been written, and it has been translated into the various modem languages of India. The best editions of the Sanskrit text are those of W. von Schlegel (2d ed. Bonn, 1846), and Thomson (Hertford, 1855). The latter also published an English translation.