THE BEAVER AS A SPECIES 215 
they realise the importance of wind and always 
select the lee side of a pond when on watch. 
Castoreum, for which the beaver is famous and 
has been for at least twenty-four hundred years, is 
a peculiar substance secreted in two glands situated 
below the pubis. It has a mild and not unpleasant 
odour which is supposed to be very attractive to 
many kinds of animals and consequently is used 
by nearly all trappers in preparing ‘“ medicine” 
with which to lure the various fur-bearers to the 
traps. It is also believed to possess extraordinary 
medicinal properties, and has been in use for over 
two thousand years. Martin states that “the 
earliest references we have to the beaver in history 
date back to 500 B.c., when Hippocrates mentioned 
it in connection with medicinal uses of castoreum, 
and from the fact that Pliny wrote that the 
creature’s life was spared on surrender of the 
valuable pouches of castoreum, we gather that it 
was for these alone that the animal was hunted.” 
The substance in various forms was used as a cure 
for headaches, deafness, abscesses, gout, epilepsy, 
colic, toothache, sciatica, lethargy, fever; pleurisy, 
‘‘induces sleep and prevents sleepiness,” helps 
memory and cures tuberculosis and rheumatism, 
and is of benefit to mad people. It was also used 
in smoking with soothing effect by the Indians. 
Surely an array of virtues not surpassed by even 
the most imaginative quack doctors in advertising 
their “cure-alls!” We may laugh at the ancients 
