VOL. XXXIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TKANSACTJUNS. S3 



Many and various have been the opinions, even of the learned world, as to 

 the origin and nature of ambergris. Some have reckoned it a bitumen, and to 

 issue from the earth ; others, that it was produced from some insect, as honey, 

 silk, &c. Mr. Boyle, in a former Transaction, communicated an account of 

 ambergris, from a Dutch merchant, who first denies it to be the scum or ex- 

 crement of a whale, and then gives it, as his opinion, that it is a fat gum that 

 issues from the root of a tree, and that you may raise it in quantities by plant- 

 ing those trees by the shore ; and so the stream will cast it up to great advan- 

 tage. But it is now found, that this occultum naturae is an animal production, 

 and bred in the bod) of the sperma ceti whale, analogous to what is found in 

 some land animals, as the musk hog or Taiacu, the musk deer, the bezoar 

 sheep, and some amphibious animals, as the musquash, &c. which have their 

 valuable scent in a particular cystis or bag. Probably what first gave occasion to 

 the notion of ambergris being the production of the whale, was because it was 

 found in considerable quantities on the shores of the summer islands, and 

 among the Bahamas, where the dead whales are frequently wrecked and broken 

 up with the sea, and the ambergris found floating, or on the shore. But here 

 again the ingenious, till very lately, were at a loss, and divided in opinion ; for 

 though they agreed that it came from the whale, yet some took it to be the 

 true and proper semen, being found only in the bull, at the root of the penis, 

 near the testicles; others again took it to be the ordure or excrement of the 

 whale. 



The best and most exact account of ambergris, has been very lately received 

 from one Mr. Atkins, an inhabitant at Boston in New England, who used the 

 whale fishery, for 10 or 12 years together, and was one of the first that went 

 out a fishing for the sperma ceti whales, about the year 1720, and then began 

 to discover the ambergris. His account, which agrees with that of several 

 others, is to the following purport. 



The ambergris is found only in the sperma ceti whales, and consists of balls 

 or globular bodies, of various sizes, from about 3 to 12 inches diameter, and 

 will weigh from a pound and a half to 22 pounds, lying loose in a large oval 

 bag or bladder, of 3 or 4 feet long, and 2 or 3 feet deep and wide, almost in 

 the form of an ox's bladder, only the ends more acute, or like a blacksmith's 

 long bellows, with a spout running tapering into and through the length of the 

 penis, with a duct, or canal, opening into the other end of the bag, and coming 

 from towards the kidneys ; this bag lies just over the testicles, which are above 

 a foot long, and is placed lengthwise at the root of the penis, about 4 or 5 feet 

 below the navel, and 3 or 4 above the anus. This bag or bladder is almost full 



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