THE BEAVER. 1415
l!**? cor ds. The size of the sacs is liable to considerable variation.Ore aro .elongated and pyriform. The penis or the oil sacs, or both,ar e v primes attached to them. The colour and other external charactersthn- nabIe -
b ay Co ln b ° UIKbs ob castoreum, which was offered for sale by the Hudson’s"dth a b] ' A cons iderable quantity of it was covered externallyc olou r q-p white mouldiness, while the remainder was of a brownishda lr ■ brown colonr, however, varied considerably; sometimesa re fou n ] ’ ln some cases yellowish, or even reddish. Some castor sacsC Wacter . n€ j ar ^ Gln pty, and present, in their dried state, a very fibrousIJric fiiou s tbesc are °f inferior quality. Others are found gorged withI )r csentjj Dlatter ’ an d, when quite dry, break with a resinous character,'»>uii y *° fibres until they have been macerated in spirit of wine. InIn jg e iid sa cs the castoreum is quite soft.
°ne call 181 commerce, two varieties of American castoreum are made :'y tfi e ij j be Hudson’s Bay, the other the Canadian . Both are importedC(>Ils ide ■ on ' s Bay Company. The Hudson's Bay castoreum is usuallyBie h 0ll le<a fi‘ e finest variety. The specimens of it which I examined at>' Aionl 0< D. he Cf :. n !i ,an >'’ in December, 1834, came from York Fort,'iiuri lvi n q Se Birer. The finest samples were superior to any of the Cana-2. Up. ’ “lough the average quality was much the same.
8c arc e S \rrf N Gastoe. ( Castoreum Rossicum). — This is exceedingly^Usseujjj * len met with it fetches a very high price. I have paid for a^illij, Sam Ple £2 per oz., while American castor fetched only twenty%alky n ,ler b> ' There are at least three kinds of castor sold as Russian .'Ulrica u Sfian castor occurs in smaller and more rounded sacs than the°1 $a Cs j 11 bln d (see Land. Med. Guz. vol. xvii. p. 296, fig. 41). A pair* e en }j a , n m y museum weighs 557 grains. The specimens which I haveit 0( lou n . eitber P en is nor oil sacs attached. The colour is ash-brown,rat of J- Is peculiar, empyreumatic, and readily distinguishable fromp at fi fle ^merican kind. Under the teetli it breaks down like starch,i Sbn KuFh Blfie taste, then becomes bitter and aromatic. It is readilyC ’l°ric a -j Bom all other kinds by dropping it into diluted hydro-mother l.f. 1 "fien it effervesces like a lump of marble. I have seen
In December, 1834, I examined between three and four
j. ' ••**\*i* xi, cncivobvca into c* — --
.^tor. 2? °f castor from Russia which may be termed Resinous Russianne sacs were large, wHl-filled with resin, did not effervesce
’ ' - - - - ' ! —il A.t nf
A o Ul orie 1 7r dr0 ' chloric acid, and
had an odour very similar to that of
o Me/ St0r :. The Russian castor described by Guibourt ( Journ . de4 ?fion / ' fi P- 602) appears to have been subjected to some pre-
is e C OM PosiT ee ^ rj nd. Med. Gaz. vol. xvii. p. 297, fig. 42.)jj Ve ial c jj I . 0N •—Castoreum has been subjected to chemical analysis byi>u In,".® 18 . 18 - Those whose results deserve especial reference are
-• 1 ^ - 1 -~ /-.*rw 1
b
» 111 (cjuof^n° iS * JLnose wnose results ueservu - —
^ X. \\r p, e< * by Gmelin, Hand. d. Chem . ii. 1449) and Brandes (quoted
* M&rtius, Lehrb . d.pharm. Zool. 19, and 27).