“Amber (as some thinke) is made of whale’s dung.”—(John Leo, “Observ. of Africa,” in Purchas, vol. ii. p. 772.) Ambergris was anciently supposed to be the dung of the whale or other monster of the sea.—(Mr. W. W. Rockhill.) This view about the origin of amber was not credited by Avicenna. “Ambram non esse stercus animalis maris.”—(Vol. i. p. 273, b10.) In the liturgy of the hill tribes of the Nilgherris, it is related— “Mada a uriné dans le feu.” “Mada a fienté à la face du soleil.” —(Quoted in “Les Primitifs,” p. 245.) Réclus, in the same work, gives a fragment of an Orphic song: “Glorieux Jupiter, le plus grand des Olympiens, toi qui te plais dans les crottins des brebis, qui aimes à t’enfoncer dans les fientes des chevaux et des mulets.”—(p. 246, quoting from “Fragmenta Orphei,” edited by Hermann.) “The blessed Apostle Paul, being rapt in contemplation of divine blissfulness, compares all the chief felicities of the earth, esteeming them (to use his own words) as ‘stercora,’ most filthy dung in regard of the joys he hoped for.”—(Harington, “Ajax,” p. 26.) “He is truly wise that accounteth all earthly things as dung that he may win Christ.”—(Matt. xvii. 23, quoted in Thomas à Kempis, cap. iv., “Of the Doctrine of Truth.”) “It was current among the small boys at school some thirty-five years since, that were a man to make water whilst in connection with a woman she would die.”—(Personal letter from Prof. Frank Rede Fowke, South Kensington Museum, London, England.) The name of the city of Chicago has been traced by some philologist to the Indian word for skunk; and it is said to be “equal to bestiola fœda mingens.” The urine of this little animal was believed by some of the Indian tribes to be capable of blinding the man in whose eyes it entered; the animal itself was deified by the Aztecs under the name of Tezcatlipoca. For the interpretation given for the word “Chicago,” see the work “Indian Names of Places near the Great Lakes,” by Captain Dwight Kelton, U. S. Army, Chicago, Illinois, 1888. XL. URINOSCOPY, OR DIAGNOSIS BY URINE. The examination of the urine and feces of the sick seems to have obtained in all parts of the world, and among all sorts of people; but in the earlier stages of human progress it was complicated with ideas of divination and forecast, which would make it a religious observance. The health of a patient was shown by the condition of his urine.—(Pliny, lib. xxviii. cap. 6.) The Arabians used to bring to their doctors “the water of their sick in phials.”—(Burton, “Arabian Nights,” vol. iv. p. 11.) In the index to the Works of Avicenna there are two hundred and seventy-five references to the appearance, etc., of the urine of the sick.—(Translation of Avicenna made by Gerard of Cremona, edition of Venice, 1595.) “Apothecaries used to carry the water of their patients to the physician.”—(Fosbroke, “Encyclopædia of Antiquities,” vol. i. p. 526, article “Urine.”)