PHYSETER MACROCEPHALUS. 



so that whenever the animal spouts water it is to that side on- 

 ly. The upper part of the body is of a blackish color, and the 

 belly white. There are forty-six double teeth in the lower 

 jaw, which is shorter than the upper, and in the head is a tri- 

 angular, bony cavity, covered by the common integuments 

 only, and filled with an oily fluid, which on the death of the 

 fish congeals into a spongy mass. The eyes are small, the 

 pectoral fins near the angles of the mouth, and the tail forked. 



Spermaceti is found in several parts of the body of the ani- 

 mal, mixed with the common fat. The head, however, is the 

 grand reservoir for it. Here it is found (mixed with oil), in a 

 large excavation of the upper jaw, anterior to, and quite dis- 

 tinct from, the true cranium which contains the brain. Mr. 

 Hunter (Phil Trans., Vol. LXXVII. p. 390) states that the 

 spermaceti and oil are contained in cells, or a cellular mem- 

 brane, in the same manner as the fat in other animals ; but 

 that, besides the common cells, there are larger ones, or liga- 

 mentous partitions going across, the better to support the vast 

 load of oil, of which the bulk of the head is principally made 

 up. An ordinary-sized whale wih 1 yield upwards of twelve 

 large barrels of crude spermaceti. 



There are two places in the head where this oil lies ; these 

 are situated along its upper and lower part; between them 

 pass the nostrils, and a vast number of tendons going to the 

 nose and different parts of the head. The purest spermaceti 

 is contained in the smallest and least ligamentous cells. It 

 lies above the nostril, along the upper part of the head, im- 

 mediately under the skin and common adipose membrane. 

 These cells resemble those which contain the common fat in 

 the other parts of the body nearest the skin. That which lies 

 above the roof of the mouth, or between it and the nostrils, is 

 more intermixed with a ligamentous cellular membrane, and 

 lies in chambers whose partitions are perpendicular. These 

 chambers are smaller the nearer to the nose, increasing towards 

 the back part of the head, where the spermaceti is more pure. 



Mr. Hunter discovered about the nose, or anterior part of the 

 nostril, a great many vessels having the appearance of a plex- 

 us of veins, some as large as a finger. On examining them 

 they were found loaded with spermaceti and oil, and some had 

 corresponding arteries. They were most probably lymphatics, 

 whose contents had been absorbed from the cells of the head. 



In the right side of the nose and upper surface of the head of 



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