
Magic of bullocks’ hairballs
Andy Blackwell, collections research volunteer on the Farmers Will Like It project explores the history and folklore of the bullocks’ hairballs in the museum’s collection.
In the Personal and Curios display cabinet in the Butter Market – the first section of the museum – are two hairballs that were found in the carcass of a bullock. They’ve been with the Museum since 1939 and were originally part of Bill Dalton’s collection, so the bullock was most likely from the Helston area. Bill Dalton was the museum’s first curator.

Protection from poison
All animals, humans included, can develop hairballs where indigestible matter clumps together and builds up in the digestive system. Strictly speaking they can be other types of matter than hair. In cattle, for instance, they are most likely fibrous grass. Unlike cats, bullocks can’t vomit up the hairballs and so they are usually found when the animals are slaughtered.
Hairballs can of course cause health problems but historically they were reputed to have medicinal properties. They were, and still are, known as ‘bezoars’, derived from an old Persian (Farsi) word that meant ‘protection from poison’.
Bezoars were prized for their supposed properties from the 11th century by Islamic physicists and their reputation gradually spread to the West. Kings and other rulers, fearful of the risk of poisoning, would make sure they had bezoars available to put in their drink, and their bezoars were often contained in items of jewellery. Usually the bezoar would be ground to a powder but sometimes put in the drink whole.
Notably, King Charles IX of France was shown one in 1567 and he asked his Royal Surgeon, Ambroise Paré, if this could really work. Paré said it could not and he carried out a test to prove it to the King. A cook who was to be hanged for stealing silverware was offered the chance to take poison, followed by a bezoar, instead of hanging, the condition being that if he survived he was to be set free. Thinking he had nothing to lose, the cook took the offer but the unfortunate man died in long slow agony, proving the bezoar didn’t work.
Harry Potter and the brilliant bezoars
Bezoars feature in Harry Potter too. In one instance Severus Snape details bezoars as an antidote to poisons and on another occasion Harry shoves one down the throat of Ron Weasley, who had been poisoned, thus saving his life.
Various anecdotes over the centuries both supported and denied the powers of bezoars. As medical science developed the stories gradually unravelled, claims lost credibility and by the 18th century their popularity had faded.
Don’t try this at home
Interestingly, relatively modern research described by Thomas Maugh has shown that some bezoars when immersed in an arsenic-laced solution can remove the toxic compounds to some extent (DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME!).

References
Stephen Paget, Ambroise Paré and his Times (1897), pp. 186-187.
J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997); Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000); Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005).
Thomas H. Maugh, ‘It isn’t Easy Being King’, Science, vol. 203, issue 4381 (16 February 1979).