My remarkable padlet by Viki Steklova

Europes introduction to the bezoar

102088_13 — 2024-03-18 14:26:51 UTC

In the 11 th Century, bezoars were brought into Europe by Persian Merchants. Ancient arab physician Avenzoar believed that bezoars formed after goats ate venomous snakes and submerged themselves in cold water, which interacted with the venom in such a way that the tears formed in the goat’s eyes would solidify into bezoars.

The import of Bezoars from Persia to Europe showed globalization and interaction between two different continents.

Popularity of Bezoar’s Rising in Europe

102088_13 — 2024-03-18 14:27:28 UTC

The bezoar came into Europe when conducting a murder using poison was the most popular. There were even long books that wrote everything about poisonous plants. This led more people to buy the bezoar to stay safe from getting poisoned. However, the harvest of the bezoars were very hard, causing the price to rise.While bezoars were rare due to their low beazor animal ratio, only 1-2 bezoars per 100 animals. Monarchs were paranoid about being poisoned and often had cupboards full of bezoars. However, for the less wealthy, bezoars were sold in fragments or could be rented for a day.

Connection to the Lobckowicz

102088_13 — 2024-03-18 14:27:55 UTC

People from the Middle Ages used the bezoar by mixing it in the drinks to remove the poison or wore it as a necklace to prevent diseases. The bezoar came into Europe in the Middle Ages (500-1400,1500 c.e) when murdering by using poison was the most popular way to kill someone. There were even long books that wrote everything about poisonous plants. A bezoar is very expensive and was purchased by the rich people. It can be seen that the Lobkowicz palace owns a bezoar because of their wealth during the period of time. However, during the 18th century the popularity of the bezoar fell due to an experiment that showed that bezoars don’t have the ability to cure poison. This shows that the bezoar wasn’t used by the royal family for a long period of time but was kept due to its value it was purchased in.

Rudolf II

102088_13 — 2024-03-18 14:28:14 UTC

Rudolf was obsessed in different kinds of magic by mainly natural magic. Natural magic is the science of manipulating things that were created by god like nature. tHis was not taken well by the public as there was fear it would attract the devil rather than god. He collected “proof” that he could manipulate magic in his kunstkammer. During Rudolfs ruling alchemy was mas the biggest passion on central europe. Due to his fame he was paranoid of being poisoned. While the book did not made any specific connections to rudolph and the bezoar wecan connect ideas. Like during the alchemy era was the bezoar introduced to europe.

Fake Bezoars

102088_13 — 2024-03-18 14:29:04 UTC

Unfortunately, most bezoars on the market, due to their rarity and high demand, were man-made bezoars. These Man-made bezoars were made of Sapphires, rubies, pearls, musk, ambergris, and gold that were ground up and a little bit of real beazor. Since we saw the gold pieces inside the blazer, our bezoar could be a man-made bezoar. Due to the beazor and the monarch's dependency on them, chains of trade were created.

Debunked

102088_13 — 2024-03-18 14:29:23 UTC

One of the first and most significant events that contributed to the debunking of the healing properties of the bezoar was Ambroise Paré’s experiment in 1567 on a cook sentenced to death for stealing. Paré offered a deal to the cook, where if he was poisoned, given a bezoar, and survived, then he would be able to walk free. The cook died, which proved that bezoars didn’t work on all poisons, if not any. This led the decline use of Bezoars.

Alchmey

102088_13 — 2024-03-18 14:29:37 UTC

Alchemy is a type of chemistry that was used from the middle ages to the renaissance. Alchemy was considered to be part of magic but alchemists used scientific elements as well.The goal of doing alchemy included changing metal into gold, curing all diseases and to create potions that gave youth. Alchemists weren’t considered believable due to their unrealistic goals but they helped shape the chemistry world today. Alchemy was common and welcomed in Czechia due to Rudolf ll the emperor who was very interested in Alchemy. Many other countries didn’t welcome alchemists due to their unrealistic labs. However, Czechia alchemists were provided big lab rooms and support from the emperor. This happened between the 15th century to the 16th century where Bezoars were super popular. Rudolf ll had a fear of getting poisoned so he bought many bezoars. To add on when the renaissance came in, having a bezoar represented wealth as well. Alchemy and Bezoars are related because they were both in the same time period, and used by similar people, and Bezoars include the goals of alchemy, which is preventing diseases. There is a high chance of alchemists creating Bezoars.

Decline in the Use of Bezoars

102088_13 — 2024-03-18 14:29:54 UTC

Anti-vaxxers through history

102088_13 — 2024-03-18 14:30:22 UTC

The first anti vaccines were in 1800. Against the smallpox vaccine due to religious beliefs and distrust of medicine. Later, people were against the DPT vaccine even with scientific evidence stating that the vaccine was harmless. People spread myths about the MMR vaccine, saying that it causes autism even with structured scientific reasoning saying there are no links between autism and the vaccine. To conclude, even with structured scientific evidence, vacciners believe in their myths instead of science. We can see this trend in the bezoar when people strongly believe the bezoar was an antidote even with no scientific evidence to support their claims. Today the biggest anti vaccine movementsaginst the vaccinefor measles. Anti-vaccine activists underestimate the dangers of measles, Incorrectly saying it is not a severe illness. Even though a highly effective vaccine, is available measles are spreading worldwide due to access issues and rising vaccine skepticism. Anti-vaccine influencers are spreading misinformation about measles and vaccines on social media platforms. The availability of vaccines makes measles preventable, but it requires efforts to combat vaccine misinformation and skepticism.

Bezoars Today

102088_13 — 2024-03-18 14:30:47 UTC

In China and other Asian countries, they hunt porcupines to get the bezoar. The value of the bezoar is very expensive, reflecting the cost of the bezoar to the past. The porcupines in Asia are endangered. This shows that when the porcupines are extinct, other agricultural animals can become the next place to find a bezoar.

Pseudoscientific medicinal ideas in history

102088_13 — 2024-03-18 14:31:27 UTC

There are countless examples of ideas about medicine that were based on no scientific evidence. Like bezoars, unicorn horns, mandrakes, and many many other objects were at some point thought of as having magical healing properties. Over time, lots of ideas on specific objects came and went, however pseudoscientific beliefs in general stayed around, and nowadays anti-vax is one of the most prominent pseudoscientific ideas based around medicine.