MUSICAL GLASSES 



MUSK-RAT 



361 



in comb or steel plate ; the difference of tone lieing 

 due to tlie greater length and breadth of the teeth. 

 The larger and better boxes, some of which play 

 many tunes after one winding up, can be regulated 

 in pace by a fly regulator, with flat wings, which 

 catch the air. The invention dates from about the 

 middle of the 18th century. Switzerland (especi- 

 ally Geneva) is the headquarters of the manu- 

 facture. 



Musical Glasses. See HARMONICA. 



Husk. The musk of commerce, which is an 

 important element in very many compounded 

 perfumes, is mainly obtained from the Musk- 

 deer (q.v. ), the best kind being that known 

 as Chinese musk, and imported from Tonquin. 

 Other kinds are the Indian (from the Himalayas) 

 and the Silierian. Mu.sk is often adulterated 

 with dried blood, bits of leather, &c. In 1890 

 Bauer of Erfurt produced an artificial musk by 

 treating butyl-toluol with a mixture of sulphuric 

 and nitric acids, the resulting nitro-compound 

 being purified by crystallisation troiu alcohol. 



Mllsk-<leer '' Mnsi-ltn.1 HULvliiferns) is a rumi- 

 nant Ungulate forming a special family of the 

 Artiodactyla. According to Flower, it represents 

 an ancestral type of the Pecora ( IJovidif, Cervidre, 

 Giraffidie), but with nearest aflinities to the Deer 

 ( Cervidre ). As in the G'erviihr, the young is spotted, 

 but it has no horns, and the canine teeth of the 

 male project- in the form of longish tusk ; this 

 latter fact has lei I to the association of jfosc/iits 

 with the Tragulid;r ((.'he* Totains, q.v.), which is, 

 however, not justified by its other characters. The 

 musk-deer is an inhabitant of the mountainous 

 regions of central Asia from the extreme north to 

 as far south as Cochin-China and Nepal. There 

 Li only one species, with perhaps four well-marked 

 varieties. The musk-deer is much lmnt'-'l on 

 account of the odoriferous secretion which Ls found 

 in a special gland upon the hinder-part of the 

 alidoiucn of the males. This substance was first 

 introduced into the west by the Arabs. It is 

 x|H>keri of in the pharmacologies* of Serapion 

 iui<l Avicenna and by the traveller Marco Polo. 

 The value of the sulwtance used to be very 

 great, as it figures among the costly objects 

 presented by Saladin to the Greek emperor in 

 1189. It was used in the embalming of bodies as 

 early as the 14th oentury. For an intrusting 

 account of the musk-deer (and the Chevrotains ), 

 sw Milne- Edwards, Annulet des Sciences Xaturellca 

 : and for the anatomy, Flower, Pruc. Zool. 

 A"--. Is;:,. 



Mllskf'KOn, capital of Miiskegon county, 

 Michigan, is on the Miiskegon Kiver, which here 

 (4 miles from its mouth in Lake Michigan) widens 

 into Muski-gon Lake, the l>est harUmr on the east 

 side of Laki- Mirhigan. Miiskegon is 40 miles by 

 rail N\V. of Grand liapids, has daily steamboat 

 communication with Chicago, and saws and ships 

 iTp.nin.u.- quantities of !uinl.-r. It bos also a 

 number of foundries, machine-shops, boiler-works, 

 V'.'. Pop. (19UO) tf,Ml. 



Musket. See FIREARMS. 



Musk-glands, skin-pits in mammals producing 

 a secretion with a muskv odour. They belong to 

 a series of skin-glands, which occur in various parts 

 of the body and with various secretions (see ANAL 

 GLANDS). The most notable musk-glands are 

 those of the male musk-deer and the male beaver. 

 See BEAVER, CASTUKKI-M, CIVET, &c. 



Musk or Muscovy Duck/ See DUCK. 



Musk-ox (iirilwt motc/uitiis) is a member of 

 the family Bovidtv. It inhabits at present the 

 iii.-f northern parts of the American continent 

 north of lat. 60. Its remains, which have been 



found in Quaternary deposits of England, Europe, 

 and Siberia, indicate that it had formerly a much 

 wider range. The hair is long, serving of course 

 to protect the animal from the rigour of the 

 climate which prevails in its habitat, and of a 

 brownish colour. The creature measures above 5J 

 feet from the tip of the nose to the root of the tail, 

 and so approaches in size the smallest Highland 

 cattle. It is gregarious, there being only one 

 or two males to a herd of eighty or a hundred. 

 They brouse on grass, reindeer moss, willow shoots, 

 the Labrador tea-plant, and crowberry bushes. The 

 flesh of the calves and cows, when in condition, 

 is very palatable. Unlike many purely Arctic 



Musk-ox (Oriljoi moschatui). 



animals e.g. the Arctic fox the hair does not 

 become white at the approach of winter. But it 

 has been suggested that this jirotective change in 

 coloration is not necessary, -inn- it is an animal 

 which lives in herds ; hence it is better for an indi- 

 vidual, which has got accidentally separated from its 

 fellows, to regain a position of safety by being able 

 to readily detect the w hereabouts o'f the herd than 

 to trust to escape from carnivorous foes by a resem- 

 blance in colour to the surrounding snow. 



Musk-plants. Various parts of a number of 

 plants smell more or less strongly of musk. Among 

 these are the common little Mn.-k-i.lant (see 

 MlMULUS) and the Musk-seed (see HIBIMISJ. 

 The musk-tree of Jamaica (Moschorylnm Kwartzii), 

 Monging to the natural order Meliaceo 1 , emits 

 from all parts a smell of musk. All parts of 

 Gtiarea yrandifolia, another tree of the same order, 

 a native of the West Indies, sometimes called musk- 

 wood, also smells strongly of musk. The drug 

 called Musk-root or Sainl.nl is the root of a plant 

 of the natural order Umbelliferie, and is brought 

 from Persia or central Asia ; it has a pure musky 

 odour, and is used as a substitute for musk. 



Musk-rat, a name applied to several distinct 

 animals. (1) The Desman (Myogale),& genus of 

 insectivorous quadrupeds of the Shrew (q.v. ) family 

 (Soricidse), differing from the true Shrews (Sorex) 

 in having two very small teeth between the two 

 large incisors of the lower jaw, and the upper 

 incisors flattened and triangular. Behind tnese 

 incisors are six or seven small teeth (lateral incisors 

 or false canine teeth ) and four jagged molars. The 

 muzzle is elongated into a small flexible proboscis, 

 which is constantly in motion. The eyes are very 

 small ; there are no external ears ; the fur is long, 

 straight, and divergent; the tail long, scaly, and 

 flattened at the sides. All the feet have five toes, 

 fully webbed ; and the animals are entirely aquatic, 

 inhabiting lakes and rivers, and making holes in 

 the banks with the entrance from beneath the 

 surface of the water. Only two species are known, 

 one (M. pyrenaicfi), about 8 inches long, with tail 

 as long as the body, a native of the streams of the 



