mephitis

Mephitis mephitis estor Merriam Striped Skunk D. Watson advises me that striped skunks are fairly common around the entrance to the Park, along the foot of the Mesa, and along the Mancos River.

Azote is one of the most abundant elements; combined with caloric it forms azotic gas, or mephitis, which composes nearly two thirds of the atmosphere.

Instantly a cone of black mephitis shot forth, a loathsome, bituminous stream of putrefaction that reeked of the grave and the cesspool, of the utmost reaches of decay before the dust accepts the disintegrated atoms.

The odor of corruption, the saeva mephitis, has by this time exhaled.

Come along with me, and get the mephitis blown out of you.