244 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP. 
The oil procured by boiling the bodies of skunks 
is also a commodity salable to druggists, and worth 
at present about fifty cents a pound to the maker. 
The demand has increased of late, the oil (applied 
externally) having high repute as a relieving agent 
in diseases of the chest and bronchial tubes, es- 
pecially croup, for which it has been a household 
remedy in New England since Colonial days. 
There is no reason to suppose, however, that it 
has any medicinal value different from or superior 
to any other fine animal oil, which easily penetrates 
the pores and mollifies and lubricates the air-pas- 
sages; its supposed special efficacy in bronchial dis- 
orders is doubtless a superstitious transference to 
the oil of the unquestioned value in some phases of 
such disorders of the substance of the scent-glands, 
—a remedy based upon entirely different qualities 
and effects than are possessed by this oil, or that 
of the rattlesnake or any other out-of-the-way creat- 
ure, highly regarded in “old-woman” doctoring. 
When relief follows an application it may be con- 
sidered a faith-cure, in so far as any particular 
effect of this specific kind of oil is concerned. 
However this may be, there is a steady demand 
for the commodity; and as a fat skunk will yield 
a pound and a half, there is profit in making it. 
Thus the systematic catching of skunks has become 
a regular business in certain regions, where they 
are plentiful, and many persons are engaged in it, 
particularly in Connecticut, New York, and Penn- 
