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208 THE MAGIC OF JEWELS AND CHARMS
more
especially if the dose were taken at the beginning of the year. In
general, however, he found that where Europeans used the bezoar as a
remedy, the Persians gave a dose of pearl tincture instead; but as
rarities, or perhaps as talismans, bezoars were even more highly
prized in Persia than in Europe, for there was hardly a Persian of note
who did not preserve one of these concretions among his treasures. The
price depended upon perfection of form and color, as well as upon size,
one weighing a mishkel (about 75 grains Troy) was commonly valued at
one toman, the equivalent of 15 ounces of silver (about $20), according
to Kaempfer's computation, but the price rose rapidly with the size of
the bezoar in a proportion similar to that observable in the case of
pearls. As Persian bezoars were so costly in Persia, and the home
demand for them so great, those sold by this name in Europe must have
had another origin.10
Of
several experiments made with criminals to whom poison was administered
and then a dose of bezoar to test its virtues as an antidote, one of
the most interesting has to do with a criminal incarcerated in the
prison at Prague, in the reign of Emperor Rudolph II. To this man a
drachm of the deadly poison aconitum napellus was administered.
Five hours were allowed to elapse before the bezoar was given, so that
the poison should have full time to be absorbed by the system. During
this time the effects were fully manifested, oppression at the chest,
pain in the gastric region, dimness of vision and dizziness. When the
five hours had expired five grains of bezoar were given to the man in a
little wine. After taking the dose he felt some relief and vomited, but
the bad symptoms soon returned and even became aggravated, as though a
supreme conflict for the mastery between poison and antidote were in
progress. There
10 Engelberti Kaempferi, " Amœnitatum exoticarum fase. V," Lemgoviœ, 1712, pp. 402, 403.
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