Bezoar

Bezoar (from Persian pud-zahr, expelling poison), a stony concretion variously coloured, formerly in high repute throughout the world, and still highly esteemed in China as a drug, especially as an antidote to poison. It was said by some to be obtained from mines, by others from the heads of certain serpents, by others to grow in the eyes of stags which had devoured venomous snakes. The Oriental bezoar was said to come from China and Thibet, and was really a concretion formed in the stomach of some ruminant animal, generally a gazelle, from unknown causes, or else a urinary calculus. The Occidental bezoar was a similar concretion from the llama. Bezoars of various kinds were among the presents sent to Napoleon I. by the then Shah of Persia; some were analysed, but thrown away on their nature being ascertained. As medicines they are simply inert.