~ BOTANIC MATERIA MEDICA. 391 
heat, acid and rennet (serum lactis dulce) milk 
is converted into a pearly liquid which is the 
true serum of this body, and contains sa/¢s and 
sugar, Milk is the only food that is capable of 
supporting life without the aid of water; and 
is, therefore, well adapted for nutritive pur- 
poses in all wasting diseases or mechanical in- 
juries, where solid food would be inadmissable. 
The ass’s milk contains the largest per cent of 
water, the greatest quantity of sugar and solu- 
ble salts, and the smallest amount of fat of all 
the milks analyzed. Human milk contains 88.6 
per cent of water, 2.6 per cent fat, 4.9 per 
cent salts and sugar, and about 3.9 per cent of 
insoluble salts and casein; whilst the goat milk 
contains more fat and more casein than any of 
the other milks. The various conditions and 
forms in which we find this animal secretion 
existing are both entertaining and instructive, 
and I refer you to some late work on the chem. 
istry of milk, 
Moschus, Musk.—This odoriferous substance 
is obtained from the preputial follicles of the 
male animal known as the moschus moschiferus, 
which differs from the deer family by the ab- 
sence of horns. It belongs to the class Mam- 
malia and the order of Ruminantia. This 
small deer inhabits the mountain regions of 
central Asia from Thibet to China. The sac 
containing the musk is naked and smooth above 
where it is attached against the belly of the 
deer, and convex below and covered with hair; 
internally, the sac is made up of irregular 
crumbly grains or masses, which have a brown 
red color and a penetrating and persistent odor, 
