180 
wit. O. CORDEIt’hJ PORTUGUESE NOTES, 
about this creature, I liave ventured somewhat to trespass on your 
time respecting it. Baron Cuvier says : “ Tlie most remarkable 
peculiarity in the anatomy of the Civet is the organization of 
the bag containing its peculiar scent. It opens externally by a 
narrow cleft, and is exactly similar in both sexes. This cleft 
conducts into cavities, which might each of them contain an 
almond. Their internal surface is slightly covered with fine hair, 
and pierced with many holes, each of which conducts into an oval 
follicle of very slight depth, the concave surface of which is again 
pierced with innumerable pores. The odoriferous substance comes 
from these pores. In a state of captivity these follicles are very 
gently scraped, about every second day, to obtain the civet ; but 
in winter it is secreted much more slowl}’-. These follicles are 
enveloped by a membranous sac, which has the power of 
compressing the follicles. By this compression the animal gets 
rid of the superfluous part of its perfume. This odoriferous 
substance produced by the Civet, and to which the animal owes its 
common name, forms, especially in the East, an object of consider- 
able commerce.” 
Its virtues, says the Baron, are greatly vaunted, and it was once 
the fashion among those who piqued themselves on their elegance 
to use it as a perfume, as it has since been the fashion to use musk 
and ambergris for the same purpose. It still enters into the 
composition of some medicaments and perfumes, but its use is 
greatly diminished. It used to be brought from the Indies and 
Africa. 
Shakespeare especially, amongst our old writers, makes mention 
of this perfume. Thus in ‘ Much ado about Nothing 
“ He rubs himself with civet. Can you smell him out by that ? ” 
In ‘As you like it 
“The courtier’s hands are perfumed with civet.” 
And again : 
“Civet is of a baser birth than tar; the very uncleanly flux of a cat.” 
And in ‘ King Lear : ’ 
“ Pah ; pah ! Give me an ounce of civet ; good apothecary, sweeten my 
imagination : there’s money for thee.” 
In the East the Civet is still brought up in a state of 
domestication for the purpose of gathering its perfume. An old 
