THE ODOUR OF MUSK. dal 
useless to the serpent if it fed on vegetables. There is a little 
insect termed the “ Bombardier” (Carabus crepitans) which, when 
pursued, emits with an explosive noise a bluish, acrid vapour, very 
highly irritating to the senses of its enemy, which is an insect of 
the same tribe but of three or four times its size and strength. 
The inky secretion of the cuttle-fish, which that animal employs 
as a means of bafflimg its enemies and escaping pursuit, derives 
its utility from the circumstance of its being diffusible through 
water. 
The odour of civet is much more powerful than musk, although 
its diffusiveness is not so great. On being much diluted its odour 
becomes bearable and even fragrant. Jt is very useful to assist 
other perfumes in the same way as musk. The first of the above- 
mentioned Civettz is a native of the hottest countries in Africa; 
the second is an inhabitant of India, the Moluccas, and Philippine 
Islands. A third species is found in Java, called the Viverra 
rasse. 
The Viverra Zibetha is sometimes entrapped with the fruit of 
the Durio Zibethinus tree, a delicacy which the animal is extremely 
fond of, so much so that the tree is specifically named after it. 
The fetid odour of this fruit is already mentioned. 
The Canadian Musk Rat, Ondrata Zibethica *, is an amphibious 
animal related to the beaver. It abounds on the margins of 
rivers and lakes of the United States and Canada, inhabiting mud 
huts, which it constructs. It lives on aquatic plants, principally 
the roots of the Nymphea and the Acorus, which last, as a food, 
may have some influence on the production of the characteristic per- 
fume of this animal; but its voracity is such that when unable to 
find vegetable food it will eat flesh, and, failing that, these animals 
will even eat one another tf. This Musk Rat is frequently men- 
tioned by early writers on America, on account of its odour, which 
is due to a whitish fluid deposited in certain glands near the base 
of the tail. Itis particularly strong in spring. The skins and 
tails, which long retain their odour, are used in Russia to preserve 
clothes from moth. Being cut up and macerated with spirit, a 
very powerful tincture is obtained: to one pint of spirit two 
drachms of slaked lime are generally added, the idea being that 
calcium hydrate or potassium hydrate softens the perfume and 
* Buffon, Hist. Nat. x. t. 1. t Guibourt, Hist. Nat. iv. p. 37. 
