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Show 460 MR. C. G. DANFORD ON THE [June 1, is made. The most efficacious of these concretions were generally admitted to be those which came from Persia, and which were found in the stomach of the Wild Goat of that country. It is doubtless of this species that Monardes writes (see Clusius, ' Simp. Med.' ed. 3, lib. iii. p. 41), although he is inclined to make it a link between the Deer and Goat, and to extend its range to Africa. He describes it as having the size and agility of the Stag, " Sed cornibus in dorsum reflexis et corporis forma capreis fere simile, quam ob causam, ab incolis capra montana vocatur, tametsi meo indicio cervi-capra potius dici debeat." Garzias also says (see Clusius, * Aromat. et Simp. Med.' lib. i. cap. xiv. p. 164), "Est in Corasone et Persia Hirci quoddam genus, quod Pazan lingua Persica vocant rufi aut alterius coloris (ego rufum et praegrandem Goae vidi) mediocri altitudine, in cujus ventriculo fit hie lapis Bezahr." These accounts are confirmed by Acosta (see Clusius, 'Aromat.' &c. p. 59) who states that the hunters are able to tell what animals are suffering from these concretions, which he says are sometimes so large as to cause death*. The above authors are quoted by Aldrovandus (Quad. Bisulc. Hist. p. 755) and Bauhinus (Monog. de Lap. Bez. cap. xvii. p. 97), and Bontius (De Lap. Bez. p. 165); the latter adds, "It is not dissimilar to the goat of Europe, but the horns are longer and more erect." In Ray (Syst. Animal, p. 80), Charleton (Exercitationes, p. 69), and others, we find little but repetition on this subject until we come to Kaempfer, who (Amcen. Exot. fasc. ii. p. 396, p. 406. fig. 2) describes the animal which produces the Bezoar stones as " fera quaedam montana caprini generis, quam incolae Pasen, nostrates Capricervam nominant." The description which he gives of this Capricerva agrees pretty well with the iEgagrus ; but he makes the since often repeated mistake of assigning to the female no horns, or even traces of them. Dr. Brandt (Teh. Asie Mineure, vol. ii. p. 671) considers that the animal which Kaempfer has figured represents a species of Ibex ; but it is hard to say what so rude an illustration really stands for. Brisson (Reg. Animal, p. 44) has introduced confusion into the matter by identifying with the Pasan of the above authors some species of Antelope, though he gives it a beard like a Goat; of the horns he says, " Cornua ipsi teretia sunt, recta, sat longa, ab imo ad summum fere annulata, apice tantummodo leevi." He also refers to the Wild Goat of Crete as Capra cretensis or the Ovis of most other authors. The animal figured by Houttuyn (Nat. Hist. p. 206, pl. xxiv. fig. 2), who quotes Kaempfer, also belongs to the Antelope tribe, though called by him Cervicapra, or the Bezoarbock. Linnaeus has identified the Hircus bezoarticus of Aldrovandus, the Capra bezoartica of Ray, and the Capricerva of Kaempfer with an animal which lives in Persia and produces the Bezoar stone, and * The word Bezoar, Bezabar, Pasahar, & c , is, according to some authors, derived from the Persian Pa, against, and Zahar, poison; while others say that it is merely a corruption of Pasen or Pasan, the Persian for Goat. |