Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/103

 MUSK DEER 95 grains, and possesses a fetid odor; while the Chinese is very strongly scented, and has an odor somewhat ammoniacal. A variety ex- ported from Calcutta, where it is brought from Thibet and the Himalaya mountains, is es- teemed better than the Siberian, but inferior to the Chinese. Musk is familiarly known as a perfume of most penetrating and lasting odor. According to the accounts of Tavernier, Char- din, and other travellers in Asia, it is so pow- erful when first taken from the animal that those exposed to its influence are in danger of haemorrhage from the nostrils, even when the nose and mouth are protected by coverings of linen. Headache is often produced by ap- proaching the sacs even in the open air. The substance was formerly in high repute as a medicine, and is still largely used by eastern nations and to some extent in civilized coun- tries, being administered in the form of a pill or emulsion. It is used as a stimulant and anti- spasmodic, and has been employed in hysteri- cal and other convulsions, hiccough, and low forms of fever. Its price, the uncertainty of its composition, and a want of confidence in the efficiency of its action, render it by no means a popular drug with American prac- titioners. Musk is however chiefly of value as a perfume ; and it is the most remarkable of substances for the diffusiveness and perma- nence of its odor. A whole room has been known to be perfumed with it for 30 years, and no perceptible loss of weight in the musk was occasioned thereby ; and specimens known to be 100 years old were as strong as the fresh article. One part communicates its smell to more than 3,000 parts of inodorous powder. Its taste is disagreeably bitter and acrid. Its chemical composition is variable and exceed- ingly complicated. A volatile compound, prob- ably of ammonia and a volatile oil, has been found by Guibert and Blondeau, in the pro- portion of 47 per cent. Besides this, they separated a large number of other ingredients. MUSK DEER (moschidai), a family of small ruminants, living in flocks on the continent of Asia and the larger islands of the Indian archi- pelago. They have no horns in either sex and no lachrymal sinuses, but the males have two elongated canines in the upper jaw, used as in- struments of defence and offence ; the legs in some are exceedingly slender ; the name is de- rived from the presence in the males of some of the species of a bag or pouch beneath the abdomen, which secretes the powerfully odor- iferous substance known as musk. The true musk deer (moschus moscliiferus, Linn.) is of about the size of a small roebuck, with shorter legs and thicker body; the color is reddish brown, paler below and on the inside of the limbs, with throat and streak on each side of the neck white, and sometimes whitish gray on the sides ; the hair is stiff, long, and curled ; the canines project an inch beyond the closed mouth; the hoofs are long and sharp, well adapted for the rocky places in which they de- 584 VOL. xn. 7 light to dwell in the manner of the chamois ; the ears are long and the tail short. It is shy, very active, and not easily taken; it is pur- sued chiefly for the odorous secretion, which is strongest and most abundant during the rutting season. This species is distributed over the Musk Deer (Moschus moschii'erus). mountainous regions of central Asia, especially Thibet and China, extending even into northern Tartary. The flesh is sometimes eaten, and the skins are prepared as articles of clothing and as leather. A species is said to exist near Sierra Leone, on the west coast of Africa. In tropi- cal Asia and its islands are the allied genera, tragulus (Briss.) and meminna (Gray), con- taining the most diminutive of ruminants, some of them no larger in the body than a hare. The napu musk deer (T. Javanicus, Briss.) has shorter ears, smooth hair, very slender legs, with the supplementary hoofs at a greater dis- tance from the ground; like the rest of the genus it has no musk sac ; it is about the size of a full-grown hare, of a glossy ferruginous brown color, lighter along the back; throat, chin, under parts, and inside of the limbs white ; on the fore part of the chest are three broad, white, radiating stripes, separated anteriorly by bands of blackish brown ; and a white line passes back on the cheek from the lower lip. It is commonly called the mouse deer in the straits of Malacca. It inhabits Java and Su- matra, frequenting thickets near the seashore, and feeding principally on berries of a species of ardisia ; it is easily tamed, when taken young. The kanchil (T. pygmceus, Briss.) is of the size of a small rabbit, of a delicate and elegant shape, and very active ; this is the spe- cies which is said to leap to the branches of a tree when pursued, hanging suspended by the canines until its enemy has passed by ; the flesh is excellent. The color is reddish brown on the back, bay on the sides, white below, with three white streaks under the throat ; it is common in the peninsula of Malacca and the neighboring islands, where it is captured in traps or by throwing sticks- at the legs when it