024 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1733. 



particularly in a small river near Leipheim, called the Biber. The Commenta- 

 tor says this river has its name from the vast numbers which were lormerly 

 found thereabouts, biber being German for a beaver, but that now they are all 

 destroyed, and none to be found in the Danube, except in Austria ; that there 

 are a few in some rivers in Switzerland, in Poland, in Muscovy, in the Wolga, ' 

 in the West-Indies, especially in Canada. The greatest quantity of castor, 

 which is brought to England, comes from Maryland, New-England, and 

 Hudson's- Bay. 



In Sect. 11, Marius speaks of a peculiar virtue in the fur of the beaver, 

 which he had from a Jew, who informed him, that by wearing on one's head a 

 cap made of the fur of the beaver, and by anointing the head once a month 

 with oil of castor, and taking 2 or 3 oz. of castor in a year, one's memory 

 will be so strengthened, as to be able to remember every thing one reads. 

 Though this seems to be only a superstitious fancy, yet the Dr. mentions it, 

 because probably such a notion might have at first brought the use of the flock 

 of this animal into request for making hats. 



In the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, for the year 1704, 

 p. 48, is an extract of a letter from M. Sarrasin, the king's physician in Canada, 

 concerning the dissection of the beaver. He says, the largest are 3 or 4 feet 

 long, and about a foot or 15 inches broad in the chest, and in the hanches ; 

 that they commonly weigh about 50lb.; that they usually live to the age of 

 20 years; but Francus, Sect. 8, says, they live 30 or 40 years, and that 

 he heard of a tame one being kept 78 years : perhaps the European may ge- 

 nerally be longer lived than the American. Dr. Sarrasin says further, that a 

 great way north these animals are very black, tliough there are some wliite ones 

 to be seen ; those in Canada are commonly brown ; but their colour grows 

 lighter, as they are found in more temperate countries ; for they are yellow, 

 and even almost of a straw-colour iu the country of the Ilinois and Chaovanons. 

 The author then gives a very particular account of the several parts, external 

 and internal, of this animal : he takes especial notice of the ston)ach, which, 

 he says, is above a foot long, and about 4 inches broad in the part next tiie 

 spleen ; that at about a of its length, it is contracted to half its former 

 capacity for an inch in length ; that then it widens again to 3 inches towards 

 the pylorus, which is raised very high, is round, and drawn towards the spleen 

 by a membrane which adheres to the oesophagus by its other end. Though 

 this dilatation seems to make a second stomach, it onl) serves to retain the 

 aliment a longer time, especially the more solid, as wood, which only under- 

 goes a slight extraction, passing through with very little alteration, whereas 

 herbs, fruits and roots are perfectly dissolved. The membranes of the stomacli 



