MUSK, or MUSK DEER, kroschus moschatus, a ruminant quadruped, the type of the family moschick. This family differs from cervida3 (deer) in the want of horns, and in the long canines of the males, projecting beyond the lips. The musk is an inhabitant of the elevated mountainous regions and table-lands of central Asia. The habits of the musk are very similar to those of the chamois. Its favorite haunts are the tops of pine-covered mountains, but its summer range extends far above the region of pines. Its habits are nocturnal and solitary, and it is extremely timid. It is much pursued by hunters on account of its odoriferous secretion, which has been known in Europe since the 8th c., and is much valued as a perfume. This secretion, musk, is produced in a glandular pouch situated in the hinder part of the abdomen of the males; and its natural use seems to be that of increasing sexual attractiveness. The musk-bag is formed by an infolding of a portion of the skin of the belly, within which a number of membranes are contained, and between these membranes are glands by which the musk is secreted. When newly taken from the animal, musk is soft and almost resembles an ointment; it is reddish brown, and has an excessively powerful odor. Very little of it reaches Europe unadul terated.—Musk is usually imported either in the form of grain-musk, that is, the musk which has been collected chiefly from stones upon which it has been deposited by the animal, in which state it is a coarse powder of a dark-brown color; or in the pod, that is, in the musk-sack,which is cut altogether from the animal, and dried with the musk inside.
Of both kinds the annual importations are about 15,000 ounces per annum, chiefly from China and India. Small quantities arc used in medicine, but the greater portion is employed by the perfumers. It is imported in small boxes or catties, often covered with bright-colored silk, mid each containing 25 pods. The kinds generally known in trade are the TonqUin or .Chinese, which is worth two guineas an oz. in the pod, or £3 10s. per oz. In grain; and the Carbardine, Kabardine, or Siberian, is always imported in pod, and is very inferior, being only worth about 15s. an ounce.
The flesh of the musk is sometimes eaten, but has a very strong flavor. The season of migration from the highest and coldest to more temperate regions, is that at which the musk is chiefly pursued.—No other animal of the family mosehida yields the perfume called musk, or has more than a rudimentary musk-bag. The other species of numchitlx belong to the genus tragulus, and receive the popular name diem/lain. They have a very elongated muzzle; and the accessory boofs'assnme the form of appressed conical claws. They inhabit the thick woody copses or jungles of the Indian islands, and are the smallest of ruminant quadrupeds. Some of them are not larger than a hare. Their tusks are hot PO long as those of the musk. One of them, the napu of Java and Sumatra, has the smallest blood corpuscles of any known animal.