628 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1733. 



posing the animal to lie on her back, as when they opened her, they found a 

 pair of bags in form of pears, about 1 inch and a long, and I inch broad, di- 

 verging at their bottoms, or broad ends, but joined almost close together at 

 their necks, or narrow ends, which were canals communicating with the ad- 

 joining glands. The membranes which formed these bags were very tough, 

 full of wrinkles and furrows, and of a livid dirty colour; they were hollow, 

 and able to contain about 1 oz. of water. On opening one of them, they found 

 a small quantity of a dark brown liquor like tar, of the consistence of a thick 

 syrup, which smelt exactly like castor, and had a sort of pungency, like spirit 

 of hartshorn, which the dried castor does not retain. It is very probable that 

 the youth of this animal was the reason why these bags were not full; and that 

 the castor itself was not of that soft resinous consistence as mentioned by Dr. 

 Sarrasin, loc. citat. These must be the bags mistaken in the Act. Eruditor. 

 for the uterus. About 1 inch lower were situated a pair of glandular bodies, 

 one on each side the vagina, about 1^ inch in length, and ^ inch in breadth: 

 they were of an oblong irregular shape, of a pale flesh-colour, like the pan- 

 creas, or other glands, and having several protuberances outwardly. These 

 glands seem to communicate with the above- described bags, the canals coming 

 down from them being implanted into the glands, and both the bag and gland 

 on each side has but one orifice, which is black, beset with long black hairs, 

 and opens into the lower part of the rima, or great fissure, into which likewise 

 open the vagina and the anus. From the structure of these glands, and their 

 connection with the bags, he concludes that the castor is secreted in these 

 glands, where it is fluid like oil, light-coloured, and hardly having any smell; 

 that it runs down into the bags, which serve as receptacles to collect a large 

 quantity together for the use of the beaver, and that in these receptacles it 

 loses its thinner parts, becomes more inspissated, of a higher colour, and of 

 a stronger scent, much in the same manner as the gall in the gall-bladder, 

 which there becomes so different from what it was in the liver. 



It is certain that ducks, geese, and all sorts of water-fowl, have a gland in 

 their rump, from which they express with their bill an oily matter, and with it 

 anoint or dress their feathers, to prevent their being soaked by the water in 

 which they swim; and the glands of that large sort of duck commonly called 

 the muscovy-duck, or more properly the musk-duck, afford such an oil, as 

 sweet-scented as civet: he therefore thinks it probable, as the beaver is an 

 animal which frequents the water as much as those water-fowls, that the castor 

 is a substance provided by nature for him to grease and anoint his fur with, to 

 prevent the water from soaking quite to his skin : and as the castor is impreg- 

 nated with penetrating pungent particles, it may likewise contribute to keep off 



