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Materia Medica. — Moschus.

PART II.

the teeth hang pointing downwards, over the lower jaw; thefleece is coarser than that of the stag, but very light and soft, andvarying in colour at different seasons of the year, and differentperiods of life, chiefly from brown to nearly black, hoary un-derneath, and sometimes, but rarely, whitish: the tail is veryshort. Between the naval and the prepuce is an oval bag, flaton one side and convex on the other, about three inches longand two broad, projecting, with a very small orifice, and besetwith short hairs. This is the musk bag: it is empty in theyoung animal; but in the adult contains from 5Jss. to sjij. ofmusk, in a liquid state. The animal often expresses part ofthe contents of the bag, when it becomes too full, by rubbingitself against stones; and the matter thus ejected is said to bea purer musk than that which is brought to this country. Thehag is generally cut from the animal while it is yet alive, andan idea prevails that the animal must be caught alive in orderto obtain the musk, which is said to be absorbed and lost if thedeer be shot. As soon as the bag is cut away, a small hollowreed is inserted into it, that the musk may not suffer, which itwould be apt to do from want of air; and the whole is tiedaround with a sinew of the animal. 1

Musk is imported into England from China in caddies, whichcontain fi-om twenty to sixty and one hundred ounces each;but an inferior kind is brought from Bengal, and a still baser-sort from Russia. The best is that which is in the natural fol-licle, or the pod, as it is denominated in mercantile language.This is a sack or bag, about the size of a pigeon's egg, of abrownish colour, lined with a very thin membrane, and coveredexternally with coarse hairs. The musk itself is in grains con-creted together, dry, yet slightly unctuous, and free from grit-tiness when moistened and rubbed between the fingers, orchewed.

As musk is a very high-priced article, it is often adulterated.When this is the case, the bag, which should not have anyappearance of having been opened, appears, if narrowly ex-amined, slit or punctured in several places, through which sandlead, and other heavy matters are inserted. The musk is some-times nearly all abstracted, and a mixture of dried blood andasphaltum introduced into the bag; or both the ban- and themusk are artificial, and only scented with real musk. 7'heblood of the animal itself is often injected into the bag of musk,while both are warm, and they then unite. The first of theseadulterations is easily detected; the presence of Wood maybe suspected, if the musk, when held over the flame of a can-

1 Journ. ofa Tour in the Himalti Mountains, by J. B. Fraser, 4to. Lond. 1820,p. 352.