THE MUSK ANIMAL. 295 



no naturalist has hitherto had notice of. But of 

 all quadrupeds, there is none so justly the re- 

 proach of natural historians, as that which bears 

 the musk. This perfume, so well known to the 

 elegant, and so very useful in the hands of the 

 physician, a medicine that has for more than a 

 century been imported from the East in great 

 quantities, and during all that time has been im- 

 proving in its reputation, is nevertheless so very 

 little understood, that it remains a doubt whether 

 the animal that produces it be a hog, an ox, a 

 goat, or a deer.* When an animal with which 



[* This class of quadrupeds is now better known. They have eight small 

 cutting teeth in the lower jaw; in the upper, no cutting or fore-teeth, but two 

 long tusks, one on each side, projecting out of the mouth. 



The Thibet Musk has a bag or tumour on the belly, near the navel, and a 

 very short tail almost hid in the fur. The male measures about three feet 

 three inches from the nose to the origin of the tail, and is about two feet three 

 inches high at the shoulder ; the female is less than the male, has a sharper 

 nose, has no tusks nor musk- bag, and is provided with two teats. The head 

 resembles that of the roe : the fur is coarse like that of the animals of the 

 deer kind, but softer, very smooth, erect, plentiful, thick, and long ; the co- 

 lour varies according to the age of the animal and time of the year, but is 

 chiefly blackish-brown on the upper, and hoary, seldom white, on the under 

 parts of the body : the hoofs are long, black, and much divided, and the 

 spurious hoofs of the fore-feet are very long. It inhabits the Asiatic Alps, 

 especially the highest rocky mountains from the Altaic chain to that which 

 divides Thibet from India ; it is found likewise in China, and in eastern 

 Siberia about lake Baikal and the rivers Jenisea and Argun. The perfume 

 called musk is produced from the male. The bag that contains it is of a 

 somewhat oval figure, flat on one side and rounded on the other, having a 

 small open orifice. In young animals this bag is empty ; but in adults it is 

 filled with a clotted, oily, friable matter, of a dark brown colour : this is the 

 true musk, of which each bag contains from a dram and a half to two drams. 

 The best comes from Thibet ; that which is produced in Siberia having some- 

 what of the flavour of castor. 



The Americanus, or Brasilian Musk, of a reddish-brown' colour, with a 

 black muzzle and white throat, is scarcely so large as a roebuck. The fur 

 is soft and short ; the colpur of the head and upper part of the neck is dark 



