HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



127 



good for sore eyes, and the fat of the wild cat was 

 openly sold by chemists as a remedy for a variety of 

 disorders. " 



Civet. — Ancient Sir John Maundeville, writing of 

 the palace of Caydon in Cathay (Cap. XX.), tells us 

 how "All the walls are covered within with red skins 

 of animals called panthers, fair beasts and well- 

 smelling ; so that, for the sweet odour of the skins, 

 no evil air may enter into the palace. The skins are 

 as red as blood [artificially?], and shine so bright 

 against the sun that a man may scarcely look at 

 them. And many people worship the beasts when 

 they meet them first in a morning, for their great 

 virtue and for the good smell that they have ; and the 

 skins they value more than if they were plates of fine 

 gold." 



This apparently harmless and unquestionably 

 odoriferous "panther" was, in all probability, the 

 civet of the moderns, of whose natural history 

 inaccuracy seems to have been epidemic down to 

 recent times. The usually cautious "Nature Dis- 

 play'd " makes a great lapse from the truth when it 

 comes to speak of this animal. After describing the 

 lodges of beavers, it continues (p. 221) : " Travellers 

 ascribe almost the same inclinations and labours to 

 the civet-cat, who is an animal peculiar to America 

 and larger than our house-cats. This creature, in 

 every particular, is a beaver in miniature, and there- 

 fore it would be needless to make him the subject of 

 any further discourse." 



Dr. Smollet, in his "Present State of all 

 Nations,"* enumerates the " musk -cat " among the 

 wild animals of Hindostan. He describes it as 

 " about the size of a hare, and the musk is contained 

 in a kind of bladder or purse under the belly." This 

 musk he includes among the exports from Hindostan 

 (vol. vii. p. 184) and from China (vol. vii. p. 49) 

 the celestial musk-rat yielding "that noble perfume " 

 in the same manner as its Indian relative. Having 

 regard to the large number of musk-producing 

 creatures, I was a long while reconciling this 

 description with that of the civet ; but I am unaware 

 of any creature to which it applies more accurately. 



Zibethum, civetla or civet (from the Arab sebet or 

 zobeth), according to Hooper (p. 868), is a "soft, 

 unctuous, odoriferous substance, about the consistence 

 of honey or butter ; of a whitish, yellowish, or 

 brownish colour, sometimes blackish, contained in 

 some excretory follicles near the anus of the Viberra 

 Zibetha of Linnaeus. It has a grateful smell, when 

 diluted, and an unctuous subacrid taste, and possesses 

 stimulating, nervine and antispasmodic virtues." All 

 the same, it was a "drug now only used by 

 perfumers " (p. 207). 



A few years previously Howard had given an 

 almost identical description, and remarked: "It is 



* Vol. vii. p. 161. London, 1769. 



used chiefly in perfumes, rarely or never for medicinal 

 purposes, though the singular effects which musk has 

 been lately found to produce may serve as an induce- 

 ment to the trial." Presently we shall find that this 

 suggestion had already been realised in the cases of 

 both musk and civet, and seemingly without havin^ 

 elicited any token of disapprobation. 



Howard, having ventured on this surmise, naturally 

 gives us a full account of the producer of the 

 substance ; more complete than correct perhaps. 

 "The civet-cat, zibetha," he says (vol. i. p. 529), 

 "is a little animal, in shape resembling the wolf or 

 dog ; its snout is long and small ; its ears small and 

 rounded ; its hair is like that of a badger, but very 

 soft ; its feet small and legs short. Civet has a very 

 fragrant smell, so strong as, when undiluted, to be 

 disagreeable. ... It unites with oils, both expressed 

 and distilled, and with animal fats ; in watery or 

 spirituous liquors it does not dissolve, but both 

 menstrua may be strongly impregnated with its 

 odoriferous matter, water by distillation and rectified 

 spirit by digestion ; by trituration with mucilages it 

 becomes soluble in water." It was "brought from 

 the Brazils, the coast of Guinea and the East Indies. 

 There is a very considerable traffic of civet from 

 Bassora, Calicut, and other places, where the 

 animal that produces it is bred ; though great part 

 of the civet among us is furnished by the Dutch, who 

 bring up a considerable number of the animals." 

 With regard to its former application to medicine, it 

 was hardly to be expected that, among all the noxious 

 messes that then did duty as curatives, the chief of 

 perfumes should not have been blended with them as 

 a palliative. All manner of vegetable essences were 

 called into requisition for that sole purpose, and so, 

 in fact, were such fragrant animal products as 

 ambergris, musk, and civet. 



Bate employed this very uncleanly flux of a cat 

 very largely. He seems to have had an inkling of its 

 real or pretended intrinsic merits, but generally, 

 there is little doubt, used it with the prime idea 

 of making his mixtures more attractive. In this 

 capacity, probably, he included it in his pectoral 

 troches and breath-sweeteners (p. 665) ; but even as 

 a scent it was not altogether unsuspected of medicinal 

 properties. In conjunction with musk it occurs in 

 (p. 629) the Pulvis crinalis, a powder "for to cause 

 hair to grow and to strengthen and confirm its roots. 

 It also recreates and comforts the brain and memory." 

 Of this compound Salmon remarks that, " the effects 

 it has upon the brain and memory is (sic) rather from 

 its scent than its substance." Further instances of 

 Bate's employment may be found (for example), in 

 the Balsamum fceminarum (p. 682), and Unguentum 

 Virilitatis (694). To the latter Salmon adds some 

 obnoxious ingredients and doubles the proportion of 

 civet — previously 1 scruple to 5J drams of the 

 ointment. 



Salmon, indeed, more than confirmed its use. In 



