CIVET, a kind of perfume, bearing the name of the animal whence it is taken. The animal commonly known by the name of the civet, or civet-cat, is the vi verra civetta of Linnwus.
The civet is an animal of a wild dispo sition, and lives in the usual manner of others of this genus, preying on birds, the smaller quadrupeds, &c. It is a na tive of several parts of Africa and India ; but not of America, as some have erro neously asserted ; though it has been transported from the Phillippine Islands, and the coast of Guinea. This animal, as well as the zibet, though ,originally na tives of the warm climates of Africa and Asia, are capable of subsisting in tempe rate and even in cold countries, provided they are defended from the iniuries of the weather, and fed with succulent nourishment. Numbers of them are kept in Holland, for the sake of procuring and selling the perfume which they yield, called civet, and sometimes erroneously confounded with musk. There is a con
siderable traffic of civet from Bassora, Calicut, and other places, where the ani mal that produces it is bred ; though great part of the civet among us is fur nished by the Dutch, who rear a consi derable number of the animals. That which is obtained from Amsterdam is preferred to that which comes from the Levant, or India, because the latter is ge nerally less pure. That brought from Guinea would be the best, if the negroes, as well as the Indians and Levanters, did not adulterate it with the juices of plants, or with labdanum, storax, and other bal samic and odoriferous drugs. The quan tity supplied depends much on the quali ty of the nourishment, and the appetite of the animal, which always produces more in proportion to the goodness of its food. See VIVERRA.