Bezoars made much easier to stomach
Bezoars (from the Persian pād-zahr meaning ‘poison antidote’) are the calcified concretion found in the stomachs of some animals. Prized for their supposed medicinal properties, until the Enlightenment science at the beginning of the 18th century they could sell for more than their weight in gold.
The perceived importance of bezoar stones (and the similar Goa stones) meant that they were often …