5QA PHYSETERID &. 
CETACEA. PHYSETERID. 
Fig. 217. 
Fossil tooth, 3 nat. size, of Cachalot, newer pliocene, Essex. 
PHYSETER MACROCEPHALUS. Cachalot, or 
Sperm Whale. 
Cachalot, Owen, Report of British Association, 1842, p. 18. 
Tue evidence of the existence of the Great Sperm 
Whale, or Cachalot, in European seas at the period when 
the mammoth and other now extinct mammalia trod the 
adjoining shores, is precisely of the same nature as that 
previously adduced for the contemporaneous existence of 
the Narwhal, viz., the discovery of a fossil tooth, absorbent 
from the loss of animal matter, and with its substance 
separating into concentric layers, in the superficial deposits 
near the coast of Essex. Fig. 217 gives a side-view of 
this tooth, which is now in my possession, and fig. 218 
is a view of a longitudinal section of a recent Cachalot’s 
tooth, to show the characteristic proportions of c¢, the 
cement; d, the dente; and 0, the osteodentine, which 
substances enter into the composition of the Cachalot’s 
