WEASEL KIND. 105 



is stript off. If a person be shut up with one of 

 them in a close room, he cannot support the per- 

 fume, which is so copiously diffused. When the 

 animal is irritated, as in all the weasel kind, its 

 scent is much more violent than ordinary ; and 

 if it be tormented so as to make it sweat, this 

 also is a strong perfume, and serves to adulterate 

 or increase what is otherwise obtained from it. 

 In general it is sold in Holland for about fifty 

 shillings an ounce ; although, like all other com- 

 modities, its value alters in proportion to the de- 

 mand. Civet must be chosen new, of a good 

 consistence, a whitish colour, and a strong dis- 

 agreeable smell. There is still a very conside- 

 rable traffic carried on from Bussorah, Calicut, 

 and other places in India, where the animal that 

 produces it is bred ; from the Levant also, from 

 Guinea, and especially from Brasil, in South 

 America, although M. Buffon is of opinion that 

 the animal is a native only of the Old Continent, 

 and not to be found wild in the New. The best 

 civet, however, is furnished, as was observed, by 

 the Dutch, though not in such quantities at pre- 

 sent as some years past, when this perfume was 

 more in fashion. Civet is a much more grateful 

 perfume than musk, to which it has some resem- 

 blance, and was some years ago used for the 

 same purposes in medicine ; but at present it is 

 quite discontinued in prescription, and persons 

 of taste or elegance seem to proscribe it even 

 from the toilet. Perfumes, like dress, have their 

 vicissitudes j musk was in peculiar repute, until 

 displaced by civet ; both gave ground, upon dis- 



