Many learned men dispute respecting the Civets whence civet, namely, whether it be the seed of the civet ; cat: Cardanus so maintains, but he is thoroughly refuted on this point by Julius Scaliger Matthiolus, whose opinions many embrace ; he affirms the civet to be the sweat of the cat, inasmuch asit was gathered most plentifully whenever these animals, wearied by excitement, pant for breath. But whilst the sweat dropt from the whole body, yet as it did not impregnate the whole with musk, it cannot be musk. Others consider the civet to be an secretion of the cat. These divide all secretions into unprofitable, such as sweat, pus, excrement; or into useful, as milk, and semen for production. Civet must be classed among the latter, for it is, probably, nothing more than a secretion from the glands in the vicinity of privy parts, generated in the same way as the liver secretes the blood; udders and

women's breasts, milk; the ears, wax; and adders produce.

poison between their fangs. In the meantime cats are embarrassed with their civet, whereof they rid themselves by rubbing against trees, and evince friendship for those who, in the sheepfold, rub it off with a spoon. But in addition to other wild animals WVew Netherland furnishes, according to the occular evidence of Adriaen van der Donk, full eighty thousand beavers a year. Pliny relateshow these animals castrate themselves, and leave these parts to the hunters, inasmuch as they are much sought after, being an effectual remedy for mania, retention of the afterbirth, amenorrhea, dizziness, gout, lameness, belly and tooth aches, 'dulhiess of vision,