VOL. XXVII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 6/3 



that they were not dissolved in the water. And when this matter, which I 

 had scraped out of the vessels of the whale's penis, had lain a little longer in 

 the water, I discovered salt particles ; the two longest sides of which run 

 parallel to each other, but the two shortest sides oblique; so that one end of 

 them had a sharp, and the other an obtuse angle: and though the salt particles 

 had lain at least a week in water that was frozen, and the same water afterwards 

 dissolved, yet I saw the salts floating in it. As many observations as I made, 

 I could not discover the least particle that bore any resemblance to the animal- 

 cula in semine masculino. 



The said captain having informed me, that the testicles of a whale are as 

 large as a firkin of butter that weighs about 100 weight, I intreated him the 

 next whale he took, to cut off the vasa semen deferentia as near the testicles 

 as he could, and to lay them to dry on a plank, or to let the surgeon do it, 

 whom they have always on board, and who is fittest for such a work ; for by 

 that means I hoped to discover the animalcula therein: but as yet my request 

 has not been complied with. 



The said captain presented me with some slices of a whale's penis; adding, 

 that a little of it grated, or cut into small pieces, and boiled in milk or beer, 

 was very good against the bloody flux ; and that a neighbour of his, who had 

 been ill of that distemper a whole year, was cured by that medicine. He told 

 me also, that the female of a whale (on the side of the uterus, but a little 

 nearer its tail) has 2 nipples, or teats, which yield milk, and that he had drank 

 of it ; and he showed me the teats, the diameter of one of which was no more 

 than an inch and a half, and it was 2 inches long, but it was dried hard. 



Sometime after, he brought me two pieces of whale's flesh, hard dried, in a 

 span length, and as thick as one's largest finger. They were as black as pitch ; 

 but, as he says, when the flesh was cut off, it was red. From the blackness 

 of it I concluded, that the blood was of a deep or dark red; which the captain 

 also confirmed ; adding, that where the blood fell, it left a stain. 



I cut through the flesh both cross and lengthwise, to discover the thickness 

 of its particles ; and after I had cut thin scales across, they appeared of a 

 bright red colour ; but when I cut them thicker, they were of a dark red ; and 

 when very thick, they were blackish. In this operation I observed, that the 

 small fleshy muscles were surrounded with very thin fibrous particles, that 

 looked like little membranes torn to pieces : and on several parts of these little 

 membranes, there lay fat, which, when there is a quantity of it together, they 

 call the trane; and these trane particles lay pressed together in the same 

 manner as I have formerly described those of an ox; nor were they larger than 

 the particles of the fat of an ox; and many of these particles were like melted 



VOL. V. 4 R 



