364 SPERMACETI AND AMBERGRIS CHAP. 
Sperm Whale. Spermaceti as a drug appears to have been first 
mentioned in the pharmacopoeias of the famous medical school of 
Salerno towards the year 1100. But it was confounded with a 
totally distinct substance, viz. ainbergris. The confusion was also 
made by the famous alchemist Albertus Magnus, and by the 
observant Archbishop of Upsala, Olaus Magnus, in his work 
De gentibus septentrionalibus. It was supposed in fact by these 
writers to be the liberated sperm of the Whale, hence obviously 
the name. Later on, the substance in question was regarded as the 
brain of the Cachalot, in fact as late as the middle of the eighteenth 
century. It was Hunter and Camper who really discovered the 
true nature of the substance, oil of course, in the cavities of the 
skull.’ The huge skull of Physeter “is perhaps the most modified 
from the ordinary type” of skull in the whole mammalian class. 
The top of the skull rises into a huge crest lying transversely, 
and from it slope forward two lateral crests formed from the 
maxillary bones; in this great basin hes the spermaceti already 
referred to. The skull, as in Toothed Whales generally, is ex- 
ceedingly asymmetrical. The right premaxillary and the left 
nasal bones are much larger than their fellows; indeed the right 
nasal is hardly present as a separate bone. The parietal if pre- 
sent is fused with the supra-occipital. The jugal is large, and is 
not divided into two pieces as it 1s in the Ziphioids. The ptery- 
voids meet below for a considerable distance, as in many Dolphins, 
and in the Edentata among other mammals. The symphysis of 
the lower jaw is very long, but the bones do not appear to be 
ankylosed. The length of the symphysis recalls that of the 
Gangetic Dolphin, Platanista. 
In the vertebral column the atlas alone is free, the remain- 
ing cervicals being fused. There are only eleven dorsal vertebrae, 
eight lumbars, and twenty-four caudals. The breastbone of this 
Whale is a roughly-triangular bone made up of three pieces. 
Four cartilaginous sternal ribs are attached to this bone. The 
scapula is remarkable for the fact that it is concave on the outer 
and convex on the inner surface; otherwise it is quite typically 
Cetacean in form. The shortness of the pectoral limb is shown 
by the phalangeal formula, which is as follows:—TI 1, II 5, 
[EE 53 Vi 4.53; 
‘ 
1 See Pouchet, ‘Contribution a’ lhistoire du spermaceti,” Bergens Musewms 
Aurbog for 1893, No. 1. 
