![]() ![]() First-century Arabic author al-Birumi claimed bezoars could protect against one poison called “the snot of Satan,” which we hope never ever to encounter. Legends told of deer that would eat poisonous snakes and become immune or cry tears that solidified into poison-curing stones. Anyone with a cat is familiar with the less-cool feline version: hairballs.īezoars and other stone-like items created by animals often had a good story behind them. A bezoar is solid mass of undigested food, plant fibers, or hair found in the digestive tracts of animals, including deer, porcupines, fish, and, yes, humans. BEZOARSīezoars have been used for centuries as antidotes to poisons. So grab your handy unicorn horn and a bezoar, and let’s take a look. Just in case, best have an antidote on standby.įor millennia, a certain amount of magical thinking was employed when arming oneself against poison because science was inconveniently slow to catch up. A little arsenic or hemlock might be your best friend or your worst nightmare. Chances are, there are a lot of power-hungry wannabes waiting in the wings. Imagine you’re a medieval prince about to inherit the throne. With so much danger around, it’s no wonder humans have obsessed over finding a universal antidote-the one thing that could save us from all toxins. Naturally or unnaturally, it can be in the soil (arsenic), in the air (carbon monoxide), in your drinks (lead), and in your food (cyanide). ![]() In this extract from the new book Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything, authors Lydia Kang, MD, and Nate Pedersen discuss some of the more questionable ways people once tried to protect themselves from poison-whether or not the methods actually worked. When it comes to their health, humans will believe just about anything. ![]()
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