CETACEA. li>9 



jaw there is neither whalebone nor tooth, or if any, very small, and not 

 projecting; the lower jaw, narrow, elongated, and corresponding to a fur- 

 row in the upper one, is armed on each side with a range of cylindrical 

 or conical teeth, which, when the mouth is closed, enter into correspond- 

 ing cavities in the upper jaw. The superior portion of their enormous 

 head consists almost entirely of large cavities, separated and covered by 

 cartilages, and filled with an oil which becomes fixed as it cools, well 

 known in commerce under the very singular name of spermaceti, a sub- 

 stance for which they are principally sought ; the body not having much 

 blubber. These cavities, however, are very much distinct from the true 

 cranium, which is rather small, is placed under their posterior portion, 

 and contains the brain as usual. It appears that canals, filled with this 

 spermaceti, or white of the whale, or adipocire as it is called, are distri- 

 buted to several parts of the body, communicating with the cavities which 

 fill the mass of the head; they even ramify through the blubber that is 

 found beneath the whole of the skin. 



The odorous substance, so well known under the name of amhergris, 

 appears to be a concretion formed in the intestines of the Cachalot, parti- 

 cularly during certain states of disease, and it is said, chiefly in the 

 cascum. 



The species of the Cachalots are far from being well ascertained. 

 That which appears to be the most common, the macrocephalus of 

 Shaw and Bonnaterre, (Lacep. X.)* in lieu of a dorsal fin, has a 

 mere callous prominence. There are from twenty to twenty-three 

 teeth on each side of the lower jaw, and some small conical ones 

 hidden beneath the gum in the upper one. Its spiracle is single, 

 and not double as in the greater part of the other Cetacea; neither 

 is it symmetrical, but is directed towards the left, and terminates on 

 that side, on the front of the muzzle, which is truncated.f In ad- 

 dition to this, it is said that the left eye is much smaller than the 

 other, and that the whalers always endeavour to attack the animal on 

 that side. If this species alone furnishes, as is asserted, all the 

 spermaceti and ambergris of commerce, it must be very widely dif- 

 fused, for these articles are drawn from the North and the South. 

 Cachalots, without dorsal fins, have been taken even in the Adriatic. J 

 The 



* It is not the macrocephalus of Linnaeus. 



t We have verified on two crania this want of symmetry in the spiracle, announced 

 by Dudley, by Anderson, and by Swediauer, which inclines us to credit the inequality 

 of the eyes mentioned by Egede. 



+ We perceive no real difference between this Cachalot, of which we have good y 

 figures and several parts of the skeleton, and that of Roberson, Phil. Trans._ Vol. LX. / 

 of which Bonnaterre has made a specie^, under the name of trumpo, which is applied, 

 at Bermuda, to a Cachalot, without any more precise indication. 



As to the Little Cachalot, P. catodon, Lin., no other difference is mentioned be- 



for the spermaceti, which is a well known principal ingredient in the soothing oint- 

 ments, and is sometimes employed inwardly to alleviate a cough, and next, for the 

 ambergris, which is a sort of Bezoar concretion, commonly evacuated by the Cacha- 

 lot, and being of a light specific gravity, is found floating on the surface of tlie sea, 

 which the animal habitually frequents. It was formerly employed in medicine, as 

 an excitant of the nerves, and was used in numberless ofhcinal preparations. — 

 Eng. Ed. 



