284 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
With regard to the castoreum so long known to the ancients, 
and at one time so valuable that it fetched 40 roubles or £6 an 
ounce, a few words may be said. It is simply an odorous animal 
product analogous to musk and civet (though at the preeent much 
less familiar than these are), secreted and carried into two little 
glands or sacs placed near the root of the tail on its under side, 
and situated just above a pair of smaller oil-glands. These sacs 
are formed of several layers of connective tissue, lined by a 
delicate membrane, which is coloured by the secretion. The 
castoreum is light or dark yellow in different cases, soft, adhesive 
and gritty from the presence of calcareous matter, and has a 
strong peculiar odour. Under the microscope it shows granular 
and epithelial matter, and spherical crystals of carbonate of 
lime. The European castoreum is supposed to contain a larger 
proportion of the volatile oil, castorin and resin, and probably its 
superiority as a medicine depends upon the resinoid element. 
Castoreum may be regarded as the prototype of ‘‘ Holloway’s 
Ointment” or “‘ Cockle’s Pills,” for it was supposed to cure half 
the diseases under the sun. Pliny, for example, tells us (Book 
32, chap. 13) that it was employed for the cure of vertigo, spasms, 
affections of the sinews, sciatica, paralysis, epilepsy, as a 
neutraliser of aconite, as an antidote to white hellebore, as a 
cure for tooth-ache (when mixed with oil and injected into the 
ear on the side affected), and as a remedy also for ear-ache. He 
adds that ‘‘ applied with attic honey in the form of ointment it 
improves the eyesight, and when taken with vinegar it arrests 
hiceup.”” What more could be desired? At the present day, of 
course, its use has been superseded by other medicines, doubtless 
much more efficacious in their operation. Had these only been 
discovered a little earlier, the Beaver might still be roaming in 
haunts where the importunities of druggists have now caused its 
extinction. 
There is just one more point to which, before concluding 
these remarks, I can hardly forbear to allude, and that is the 
highly interesting fact that the Beaver has produced its young in 
the Zoological Society's Gardens. It might be supposed that 
this circumstance would have furnished opportunity for many 
interesting observations in regard to the number and condition 
of the young at birth, their rate of development, and so forth; 
and might have resulted in the elucidation of certain points of 
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