144 The Scottish Naturalist. 



have been first pointed out, as given in Cuvier,* by Theodore 

 Hasaeus, Theologian of Bremen, in a dissertation on the levia- 

 than of Job, and the whale of Jonah, 1723. The specimen 

 he describes had 52 pointed teeth in the lower jaw, " avec une 

 bosse sur le dos et une autre pres de la queue, qui ressemblait 

 a une nageoire." Sibbald also thought that the sharp teeth of 

 his young animal, and the worn teeth of the old, were of suffi- 

 cient importance to separate these whales specifically. 



Besides these, he notices a shoal of small whales, 102 in num- 

 ber, that were met with in Orkney, varying in size from 12 to 24 

 feet, with teeth only in the lower jaw. Sibbald had afterwards, 

 at least more than one opportunity of personally examining ex- 

 amples of the Sperm Whale, whether he did so or not is per- 

 haps doubtful. The first of these occurred when another 

 Cachalot stranded at Cramond, in 1701. An account of this 

 animal is preserved in an original copy of " Phalainologia" in 

 the library of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh. It 

 is a copy of part of a letter from Mr. James Paterson, keeper of 

 the Balfourean Museum, Edinburgh, to Mr. E. Lhwyd, keeper 

 of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, dated Edinburgh, 22nd 

 July, 1701, and is as follows. "There was lately a pretty big 

 whale came in at Cramond. It had no whale-bone, and teeth 

 only in the lower jaw, which (according to Sir R., i.e., Sir Robt. 

 Sibbald) is the characteristic of the kind which has the sperma- 

 ceti. You have the figure in Johnston, Tab. 42 of his fishes. 

 Diverse of our Physicians were present at the opening of the 

 head, where they got two barrels of spermaceti. This filled up 

 the whole cranium ; they could find no other thing they could call 

 the brain, if it were not a friable cineritious-like substance, which 

 seemed very improbable. They found the sperm not only in 

 the head and spina-dorsa, but (what perhaps has not been 

 hitherto observed) dispersed through the whole body, in the 

 glands, whence they prest it out in considerable quantities. The 

 Chyrurgions spoke of buying the skeleton ; but I do not know 

 how it came about, the owners disposed of all another way, so that 

 neither they nor we got anything of it. Dr. S. got a tooth. 

 He has made a description of it, and says he has materials for 

 a second part of his " Phalainologia." Our whale was a male ; 



* Ossemens Fossiles. 



