Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BE'ZOAR, n. [Pers. بَادْزَهْر badzhar, which Castle interprets “ventus, i.e. dissipator veneni, alexipharmicum omne, quod venenum pellit, et spirituum facultates retinet,” from بَادْ bad, wind, breath, spirit, and زَهْر zahr, poison. Others make it pazahar, against poison, an antidote for poison. Others derive the word from paseng, or pasahr, the name of the goat in Persia.]

1. An antidote; a general name for certain animal substances supposed to be efficacious in preventing the fatal effects of poison. Bezoar is a calcarious concretion found in the stomach of certain ruminant animals, composed of concentric coats surrounding each other, with a little cavity in the middle, containing a bit of wood, straw, hair, or the like substance. There are two sorts; the oriental, from Persia and the East Indies, of a shining dark green or olive color, with a smooth surface; and the occidental, from the Spanish West Indies, which has a rough surface, is less green, much heavier, more brittle, and of a looser texture. The oriental is generally less than a walnut; the occidental is larger, and sometimes as large as a goose egg. – Encyc. The oriental bezoars are generally of a resinous composition and combustible. – Thomson.
2. In a more general sense, any substance formed, stratum upon stratum, in the stomach or intestines of animals. – Encyc. This name is also given to the biliary calculi of certain animals. – Cyc. Fossil-bezoar is a figured stone, formed, like the animal bezoar, with several coats round some extraneous body, which serves as a nucleus; found chiefly in Sicily, in sand and clay pits. It is of a purple color, and of the size of a walnut. It seems to be of the nature of bole armenian, and is called Sicilian earth. – Encyc. Bezoar-mineral. This preparation is an oxyd of antimony, produced by distilling the nitrous acid several times to dryness from the sublimated muriate of antimony. – Nicholson.