setting non-jQuery object property inside each?

setting non-jQuery object property inside each?

Trying to add a new property to a non-jQuery object from inside each loop doesn't appear to work:


  var arguments=new Object();
      arguments['ticket']=ticket;
      arguments['email']=email;
      arguments['module']=module;
      arguments['epoch']=new Date().getTime();
                
  var total=0;
  $('select.category').each(function(){
    var name=$(this).attr('id');
    var option=$(this).find('option:selected').val();
    total+=parseInt(option);
    arguments[name]=option;
  });

The 'total' variable works as expected.  The the 'arguments' variable doesn't.  Almost like
a variable scope issue or something.  If I put some extra debug code to print out all the
property/value pairs, outside each loop I only see original four, and inside each loop only
the new one just set and none of the original four.  ???