Am  Jour.  Pharm.l  A/Tit  cb  T  ,A 
March.  1891.     /  MUSK.  1 49 
MUSK, 
A  recent  French  official  report  furnishes  some  interesting  informa- 
tion with  regard  to  the  exact  habitat  of  the  musk  deer  and  of  the 
trade  routes  by  which  the  valuable  drug  is  brought  into  commerce. 
According  to  this  authority  the  musk  known  in  the  European 
markets  as  "Tonquin"  would  be  more  correctly  described  as 
"  Yunnan "  musk,  since  its  geographical  origin  is  not  the 
French  territory  of  Tonquin,  but  the  province  of  Yunnan,  in  the 
extreme  south  of  the  Chinese  Empire.  When  it  finally  succumbs 
to  the  commercial  spirit  of  the  West,  there  is  every  prospect  that 
the  centre  of  the  musk  trade  may  be  shifted  from  Shanghai  to  Cal- 
cutta, Rangoon  or  Hanoi,  or  that  these  three  centres  may  divide 
the  business  between  them.  At  present,  however,  the  musk  of 
Yunnan  is  nearly  all  brought  by  a  long  and  difficult  overland  route 
to  Shanghai,  the  commercial  centre  of  the  drug.  As  the  crow  flies, 
Shanghai  is  1,400  miles  distant  from  the  western  parts  of  Yunnan, 
where  the  best  musk  is  collected ;  Hanoi,  in  French  Tonquin,  is 
only  about  400  miles  off,  and  is  easily  accessible  by  the  Red  River 
route,  while  to  Rangoon  there  are  about  750  miles  to  travel  in  a 
straight  line,  and  to  Calcutta  1,000  miles.  Yunnan  musk,  the  report 
says,  has  been  brought  into  commerce  by  the  present  trade  route 
ever  since  the  commencement  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  chief 
places  of  collection  in  Yunnan  being  known  as  Ta-li,  Yao-chow  and 
Mien-ning — all  in  the  western  part  of  the  province.  That  portion 
of  Yunnan  is  exceedingly  mountainous,  and  in  it  the  musk  deer  are 
still  found  in  comparatively  large  numbers,  in  spite  of  the  energetic 
manner  in  which  the  creatures  are  pursued  by  the  musk-hunters. 
A  few  years  ago  persistent  reports  were  circulated  in  our  markets 
that  the  Chinese  Government  had  strictly  enjoined  a  prolonged 
close  season  for  the  musk  deer,  and  musk  prices  advanced  partially 
upon  the  strength  of  those  rumors ;  but  it  is  doubtful  whether  such 
an  order,  even  if  it  were  issued,  could  have  been  effectively  enforced. 
Yunnan,  we  may  here  observe,  is  one  of  the  principal  Chinese 
opium-growing  provinces,  and,  according  to  European  travellers  who 
have  traversed  these  parts,  vast  fields  of  poppy  are  cultivated  every- 
where, in  spite  of  the  stringent  regulations  issued  by  the  Central 
Government  altogether  forbidding  the  cultivation  of  the  drug  in 
Abstract  from  The  Chemist  and  Druggist,  Nov.  22,  1890,  p.  716. 
