a very strong-scented substance found under the belly of an East Indian animal. See Moschus.

According to Tavernier, the best and greatest quantities of musk come from the kingdom of Boustan, from whence it is carried for sale to Patna, the chief town of Bengal. After killing the animal, the peasants cut off the bag, which is about the size of an egg, and is situated nearer the organs of generation than the navel. They next take out the musk, which has then the appearance of clotted blood. When they want to adulterate it, they put a mash of the animal's blood and liver into the place of the musk they had extracted. In two or three years this mixture produces certain small animals which eat the good musk; so that, when opened, a great consumption is perceived. Others, after extracting a portion of the musk, put in small pieces of lead to augment the weight. The merchants who transport the musk to foreign countries are less averse to this trick than the former; because in this case none of the animals above-mentioned are produced. But the deceit is still worse to discover, when, of the skin taken from the belly of a young animal, they make little bags, which they sew so dexterously with threads of the same skin, that they resemble genuine bags. Those they fill with what they take out of the genuine bags, and some fraudulent mixture, which it is extremely difficult for the merchants to detect. When the bags are sewed immediately on their being cut, without allowing any part of the odor to dissipate in the air, after they have abstracted as much of the musk as they think proper, if a person applies one of these bags to his nose, blood will be drawn by the mere force of the odor, which must necessarily be weakened or diluted in order to render it agreeable without injuring the brain. Our author brought one of the animals with him to Paris, the odor of which was so strong, that it was impossible for him to keep it in his chamber. It made every head in the house giddy; and he was obliged to put it in a barn, where the servants at last cut away the bag; the skin, notwithstanding, always retained a portion of the odor. The largest musk-bag seldom exceeds the size of a hen's egg, and cannot furnish above half an ounce of musk; three or four of them are sometimes necessary to afford a single ounce. In one of his voyages to Patna, Tavernier purchased 1663 bags, which weighed 1557 ounces and a half; and the musk, when taken out of the bags, weighed 452 ounces.

Musk affords the strongest of all known odors. A small bit of it perfumes a large quantity of matter. The odor 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 color, 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 subacid 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 flavor. The degree of flavor 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. Neumann informs us, that spirit of wine dissolves 10 parts out of 30 of musk, and that water takes up 12; 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 vapors, &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 Philosoph. Transac. no 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 disservice, where the substance, taken inwardly and in considerable quantity produces the happiest effects; that two persons, labouring under a fulvous tendinous, extreme anxiety, and want of sleep, from the bite of a mad dog, Musk dog, by taking two doses of musk, each of which was 16 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 10 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 10 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, how averse forever 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 dose has sometimes been increased, particularly in convulsive disorders, to the quantity of a scruple or half a dram every three or four hours, with two or three spoonfuls of the musk julep between. The julep is the only officinal preparation of it. It is combined with opium in tetanus, and with mercury in rabies canina.

Musks-Animal. See Moschus.

Musks-Ox. See Bos.

Musks-Rat, in zoology. See Castor.