8-1 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 1725. 



of a deep orange coloured liquor, not quite so thick as oil, and smelling strong, 

 oi- rather stronger of the same scent as the balls of ambergris, which float and 

 swim loose in it. The inside of the bag is very deeply tinged with the same 

 colour as the liquor ; which may also be found in the canal of the penis ; the 

 balls seem to be pretty hard while the whale is alive, inasmuch as there are 

 many times found, on opening the bag, large concave shelves, of the same 

 substance and consistence, that have scaled oif from them, and the balls them- 

 selves seem to be composed of several distinct coats inclosing each other, some- 

 thing like the coats of an onion. 



Mr. Atkins never found above 4 of these balls in a bag ; and in the bag 

 where he found one that weighed 21 pounds, which was the largest he ever 

 saw, there was no other in the bag besides that one. 



He further says. That to one sperma ceti whale that has any of these balls, 

 there are two that have only the deep orange-coloured liquor in their bags. 

 This remark confirms what another whale-man said, that the ambergris was 

 found only in such sperma ceti whales as are old and well grown. It is the 

 general opinion of the whale-men, that the ambergris is produced only by the 

 male or the bull sperma ceti whale. As to this particular, Mr. Atkins says, he 

 never saw, nor certainly heard of a sperma ceti female taken in his life, the 

 cows of that species of whales being much more timorous than the males, and 

 almost impossible to be come at, unless when haply found asleep on the water, 

 or detained by their calves. This is certain, the boats can never come near 

 them when awake, they are so very shy and fearful. 



Mr. Atkins's method of getting the ambergris out of the whale was thus: 

 after the fish is killed, he turns the belly upwards, and fixes a tackle to the 

 penis, then cuts a hole round the root of the penis, through the rim of the 

 belly, till he comes to the entrails, and then searching for the duct or canal at 

 the further end of the bag, he ties it pretty near to the bag, and cuts the duct 

 ofF beyond it, on which he draws forth the penis by the tail, when the amber- 

 gris bag entirely follows it, and comes clean and whole out of the belly. 



The Rev. Mr. Price of Boston, supposes the bag to be the urinary bladder, 

 and the ambergris ball to be a certain concretion, formed out of the greasy 

 odoriferous substance of the liquor contained within it. 



An Enquiry into a Dixcoverij, said to have been made by Sig. Valsalva of 

 Bologna, of an Excretory Duct from the Glandula Renalis to the Epididymis. 

 By Mr. John Ranby, Surgeon, F. R. S. N° 387, p. 270. 



The late Sig. Valsalva, having some time ago discovered a vessel, which he 



