EFFECTS OF VALERIAN ON TIGERS. 61 



all appearance are able to soothe and cause them 

 pleasure while under the influence of a fit of the 

 most furious rage, or most supine and listless 

 apathy. For instance, that cunning creature, the 

 brown rat, seems entirely to have lost its cautious 

 propensities when it smells the oil of rhodium or 

 aniseseed, and will rush blindly into a trap or 

 snare when touched by one of these extracts, which 

 it would have shunned with aversion if baited in 

 an ordinary way. 



The castoreum or " bark stone " is used in a 

 similar manner by the American trappers for the 

 capture of the beaver. This substance is secreted 

 by the beaver very much in the same way as the 

 civet cat produces the well-known scent, and has 

 a strong attraction for the members of the busy 

 little flat- tailed community. The trappers always 

 carry with them a supply of this castoreum in a 

 small stoppered bottle, and when setting a trap dip 

 the end of a twig into the odorous secretion, and 

 place it so that its extremity just shows above the 

 water, the trap being secured below the surface, so 

 that the beaver while swimming to smell at the 

 twig is in most cases caught. 



Among the feline group the valerian plant ( Vale- 

 riana officinalis), or its essential oil, appears to have 

 an equally powerful effect, as mentioned by " Zoo- 

 philus " in his interesting articles on the tiger. I 



