in natural history, is a stony concretion found in the stomach of several animals of the goat kind. It is composed of concentrical coats surrounding each other, with a small cavity in the middle, containing a bit of wood, straw, hair, or the like substances:

There are two kinds of bezoar. The first, which is brought from Persia and the East Indies, is found in the stomach of the capra bezoardica, and esteemed by physicians to be the best. It is called oriental bezoar, and is of a shining dark-green or olive-colour, and has an even smooth surface. On removing the outer coat, that which lies underneath is likewise smooth and thinning. It is generally less than a walnut.

The second kind, called occidental bezoar, is brought from the Spanish West Indies, has a rough surface, and less of a green colour than the oriental. It is likewise much heavier, more brittle, and of a looser texture; the coats are thicker, and, on breaking, exhibits a number of strice curiously interwoven. The occidental is generally larger than a walnut, and sometimes as big as a goose-egg.

The great value of this stone in Persia and the East, and the little use it is found to be of in Europe, has made many suspect that the true kind is never brought to us. Many of them are indeed evidently made by art. The usual mark to distinguish its being of a good quality, is its striking a deep green colour on white paper that has been rubbed with chalk. But it is of little importance to say much on this subject. The stone is nothing more than a morbid concretion, much of the same nature with the human calculus, of no smell or taste, indigestible in the stomach of the animal in which it is found, and scarce capable of being acted upon by any of the juices of the human body; and, notwithstanding its many boasted virtues, it cannot be considered in any other light than as an absorbent of the weakest kind. However, bezoar, on account of its high price, if it serves no other purpose, is of an excellent use in the apothecaries bill.