254 Mr. ALpErson on a Whale of the Spermaceti Tribe. 
On looking over the several works that have been published 
relating to these animals, there are evidently so many contra- 
dictions, that it is very difficult to fix on any specific point on 
which to rest, for forming those distinctions on which the pleasure 
derived from knowledge depends. 
This is remarkably the case with the Physeter Macrocephalus, 
the external orifice of whose breathing tube has been described, 
as to its termination, so variously*, that it is very uncertain where 
to place the animal we have had the opportunity of examining ; 
its form and connexion too, its final cause, its mode of action, 
are all hitherto unascertained, and although in the following ac- 
count every thing has not been done, which more favourable 
circumstances might have afforded, yet I trust that something 
will have been done worth recording. 
External and essential characters of the animal. 
+ Length of the animal from the snout to the division of the 
tail 584 feet. 
+ Distance of the eye from the snout 20 feet 8 inches. 
+ Circumference of the head from the sand on the one side to 
the sand on the other, taken midway between the eye and the 
snout, 31 feet 4 inches, (this of course does not include the lower 
jaw.) 
* Essential character of the Genus Physeter of Shaw; 
Dentes in maxilla inferiore 
Fistula in Capite s. fronte. 
P. Macrocephalus. P.dorso impinni, fistula in cervice?. 
+ These measurements were taken on Friday the 29th of April, by the Rev. Christopher 
Sykes, Rector of Roos; an ardent promoter of science. They were taken by means of 
a tape. 
« This expression, according to Fabricius, is not quite correct. Shaw's Zoology, Vol. II. P. 2. 
Dr. Schwediawer, in Phil. Trans, for the year 1783, has given a much more correct account of the ex- 
; ternal 
