Talk:Bezoar

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[edit] Harry Potter

Bezoars are given a passing mention in the Harry Potter books. The Potions Master, Severus Snape, tests Harry's knowledge in order to humiliate him on his first day at Hogwarts. The knowledge comes in useful, however in order to impress Horace Slughorn, and to save his friend Ron Weasley's life when he is poisoned.

Is this particularly noteworthy or relevant? Seems to me it should be deleted. Bezoars are mentioned in plenty of literature, we're not about to start listing them all. Ethan0 09:23, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

Ethan is a party pooper. Harry Potter apparently has a certain amount of modern cultural relevance, possibly more then many of the other bezoar-laden works. By citing this text as containing "bezoar" it could provide some context for those completely unfamiliar with the entity. Maybe if Ethan is such a bezoar scholar he can give us some other examples of prominent literary works with bezoar references (either explicit or implied).--69.137.157.233 01:26, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

I can think of, offhand, only The Sandman: Dream Country. I know I've seen them in other works as well; if I think of or happen across more I shall mention them. -Ethan (talk) • 2006-02-28 19:52 (UTC)

[edit] effectiveness?

Is there any evidence on the effects (or lack thereof) of bezoar on poison?

Yes. It is mentioned under Arsenic in "Principles of Forensic Toxicology". I have added a reference to the article. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Filksinger (talk • contribs) 18:38, 10 March 2007 (UTC).

== Hair? ==.;;lko-

I was trying to disprove what I thought to be an Urban Legend, wherin you could die or get digestion problems from ingesting your own hair, but I find I cannot conclusivly do so. Do human beings also get bezoars or are they limited to calcium?

The museum link seems to be conclusive, but wouldn't the few strands of hair ingested pass though? I believe snopes listed it once, but I cannot locate it. Sim 05:12, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

Fixed it in the article.

[edit] Origin of the word 'bezoar'?

The article states "the word "bezoar" ultimately comes from the Persian pâdzahr" but this medical paper states "The term Bezoar comes from the Arabic 'badzehr' or from the Persian 'panzer' both meaning counterpoison or antidote"[1].

Can anybody clarify where the word originated and in which language? And then how it spread into other languages? Hamster128 10:45, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

In Persian, "pâd" and "zahr" are two words and mean "anti" and "poison" respectively. The sound of "pi" doesn't exists in Arabic therefor all P's are converted to B's and so Padzahr becomes Badzahr. This word cannot be Arabic since stems are used to create a new word. his word construction is similar to English constructions as both Persian and English are Indo-European languages. Arabic on the other hand uses a different way to construct new words. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.165.3.151 (talk) 01:18, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Relationship to Snake-Stones?

Much of the material I've collected on snake stones mentions bezoar stones. (see Talk:Snake-Stones)

Is there a difference between a bezoar stone and a snake stone? Hamster128 11:05, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] References

I have supplied the requested references for the second and third paragraph for the article. Filksinger 18:41, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Vandalism

I think the page has been vandalised Brain fork 20:08, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Why do people keep removing Image:Long-haired-cat-hairball.jpg as a copyright violation? It claims to be self-released into the public domain. -Seventh Holy Scripture (talk) 18:47, 25 May 2008 (UTC)