ffords the strongest of all known odours. A small bit of it perfumes a large quantity of matter. The odour of a small particle extends through a considerable space. It is likewise so fixed and permanent, that at the end of several years it seems to have lost no part of its activity. When it comes to us it is dry, with a kind of unctuousness, of a dark reddish-brown or rusty blackish colour, in small round grains, with very few hard black clots, and perfectly free from any sandy or other visible foreign matter. If chewed, and rubbed with a knife on paper, it looks smooth, bright, yellowish, and free from bitterness. Laid on a red-hot iron, it catches flame, and burns almost entirely away, leaving only an exceeding small quantity of light greyish ashes: if any earthy substances have been mixed with the musk, the quantity of the residuum will readily discover them.

Musk has a bitterish subacrid taste; a fragrant smell, agreeable at a distance, but when smelt near to, so strong as to be disagreeable unless weakened by the admixture of other substances. If a small quantity be infused in spirit of wine in the cold for a few days, it imparts a deep, but not red tincture: this, though it discovers no great smell of the musk, is nevertheless strongly impregnated with its virtues; a single drop of it communicates to a whole quart of wine a rich musky flavour. The degree of flavour which a tincture drawn from a known quantity of musk communicates to vinous liquors, is perhaps one of the best criteria for judging of the goodness of this commodity. Neuman informs us, that spirit of wine dilutes ten parts out of thirty of musk, and that water takes up twelve; that water elevates its smell in distillation, whilst pure spirit brings over nothing.

Musk is a medicine of great esteem in the eastern countries; among us, it has been for some time pretty much out of use, even as a perfume, on a supposition of its occasioning vapours, &c., in weak females and persons of a sedentary life. It appears, however, from late experience, to be, when properly managed, a remedy of good service even against those disorders which it has been supposed to produce. Dr. Wall has communicated (in the Philosophical Transactions, n° 474.) an account of some extraordinary effects of musk in convulsive and other diseases, which have too often baffled the force of medicine. The doctor observes, that the smell of perfumes is often of difference, where the substance, taken inwardly and in considerable quantity, produces the happiest effects; that two persons, labouring under a subcutaneous tendinous, extreme anxiety, and want of sleep, from the bite of a mad dog, by taking two doses of musk, each of which was fifteen grains, were perfectly relieved from their complaints. He likewise observes, that convulsive hiccups, attended with the worst symptoms, were removed by a dose or two of ten grains; and that in some cases, where this medicine could not, on account of strong convulsions be administered to the patient by the mouth, it proved of service when injected as a glyster. He likewise adds, that under the quantity of six grains, he never found much effect from it; but that, taken to ten grains and upwards, it never fails to produce a mild diaphoresis, without at all heating or giving any uneasiness: that, on the contrary, it eases pain, raises the spirits; and that, after the sweat breaks out, the patient usually falls into a refreshing sleep: that he never met with any hysterical person, however averse to perfumes, but could take it, in the form of a bolus, without inconvenience. To this paper is annexed an account of some farther extraordinary effects of musk, observed by another gentleman. Repeated experience has since confirmed its efficacy in these disorders. The author of the New Dispensatory says, he has frequently given it with remarkable success; and sometimes increased the dose as far as twenty grains every four hours, with two or three spoonfuls of the musk julep between. The julep is the only official preparation of it.

Musk-Animal. See Moschus. Musk-Rat, in zoology. See Castor.