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Show Best Musk Produced by Male Deer of the Himalayas Throughout the long roll of the centuries there have been innumerable innu-merable perfumes. However, the bases the fixatives were a few natural products, the most famous of which is musk. Several Sev-eral animals produce musk, but the best comes from the male musk deer of the Himalayas, according to an authority in the Philadelphia Record. The musk deer Is only 20 inches high, has ne antlers and its teeth project like tusks in the male. This tiny deer carries beneath the skin of his stomach a sack about the size of an orange, in which is found a dark brown substance, somewhat like wet gingerbread (found only in the male). This "musk" is about the strongest strong-est smelling substance known, rather rath-er aromatic and pleasant. The deer is killed, the musk sack extracted and dried, then packed by camel caravan across the immense plains of Asia to the centers where it finds its way into world trade. Long before the Christian era men were killing musk deer and dealing in the musk they obtained from them. Musk is mixed with many other ingredients, whose odors it seems to blend into a whole. In color it is dark purplish, in texture dry, smooth and unctuous to the touch, in taste bitter. So pervading is it that the scent remains for centuries. In 1558 "Bloody" Mary of England ordered Lady Cecily Cholmondoley imprisoned impris-oned in the Tower of London. The governor of the tower, who sympathized sympa-thized with his fair prisoner, had her cell perfumed with musk. The characteristic perfume is still discernible dis-cernible after nearly 400 years. Chemically musk contains ammonia, am-monia, cholesterin, fatty matter, a bitter resinous substance and other animal principles. |