The hunters dry the bags either on hot stones or in the air, or they dip them into hot oil. In commerce musk occurs either in bags under the name moschus in vesicis, “musk in pods,” or free, moschus in granis, moschus ex vesicis, “grain musk.” According to its origin four sorts are distinguished: Chinese or Tonquin musk, Siberian or Russian musk, Assam or Bengal musk, and finally Bokharian musk. The latter two varieties, however, rarely reach this market. Chinese musk (Tonquin or Thibet musk) occurs in small boxes containing twenty to thirty bags, each wrapped in Chinese tissue paper; on which Chinese characters are printed. This is considered the best quality. Assam musk occurs in boxes lined with tin which contain as many as two hundred or more bags; its value is about two-thirds that of the former. Russian musk is packed in various ways and is worth about one-fourth that of the Chinese; a special variety of it, of a weaker and rather urinous odor, is known as Cabardine musk; of least value is Bokharian musk which is of a grayish black color, with a faint odor. Musk is adulterated in an almost incredible manner; at times so-called musk bags are met with which are artificially constructed of animal membranes and filled with dried blood, earth, etc., and slightly scented with genuine musk. But even the genuine musk bags are often tampered with; musk being removed from the opening and the space filled with earth, dried blood, animal excrement, or perhaps pieces of copper and lead. Pure musk reacts quite characteristically toward caustic alkalies such as caustic potash and soda or solution of ammonia, and these substances are used for testing the purity of musk. If a dilute alkaline solution is poured over musk, a marked increase of the odor is observed after a short time; if the alkaline solution is concentrated or hot, the odor of musk disappears completely and the fluid develops the caustic odor of pure ammonia. Hot water dissolves about eighty per cent of the total weight of musk; strong alcohol dissolves about one-tenth of it; when heated in an open porcelain capsule, musk burns with a disgusting empyreumatic odor and leaves a considerable amount of ash, about one-tenth of its weight. Besides the above-named substances which destroy the musk odor by the decomposition of the aromatic constituent, there are other bodies, whose action we do not know at present, which have the peculiar property of completely extinguishing this most penetrating of all odors: to deodorize a vessel completely which has contained musk, it is sufficient to rub in it some bitter almonds moistened with water or some camphor with alcohol.