364 SPERMACETI AND AMBERGRIS chap. 



Sperm Whale. Spermaceti as a drug appears to have been first 

 raentioned in the pliarmacopoeias of the famous medical school of 

 Salerno towards the year 1100. But it was confounded with a 

 totally distinct substance, viz. ambergris. The confusion was also 

 made by the famous alchemist Albertus Magnus, and by the 

 observant Archbishop of Upsala, Olaus Magnus, in his work 

 Be gentibus septentrionalilus. It was supposed in fact by these 

 writers to be the liberated sperm of the Whale, hence obviously 

 the name. Later on, the substance in question was regarded as the 

 brain of the Cachalot, in fact as late as the middle of the eighteenth 

 century. It was Hunter and Camper who really discovered the 

 true nature of the substance, oil of course, in the cavities of the 

 skulL^ The huge skull of Physeter " is perhaps the most modified 

 from the ordinary type " of skull in the whole mammalian class. 



The top of the skull rises into a huge crest lying transversely, 

 and from it slope forward two lateral crests formed from the 

 maxillary bones ; in this great basin lies the spermaceti already 

 referred to. The skull, as in Toothed Whales generally, is ex- 

 ceedingly asymmetrical. The right premaxillary and the left 

 nasal bones are much larger than their fellows ; indeed the right 

 nasal is hardly present as a separate bone. The parietal if pre- 

 sent is fused with the supra-occipital. The jugal is large, and is 

 not divided into two pieces as it is in the Ziphioids. The ptery- 

 goids meet below for a considerable distance, as in many Dolphins, 

 and in the Edentata among other mammals. The symphysis of 

 the lower jaw is very long, but the bones do not appear to be 

 ankylosed. The length of the symphysis recalls that of the 

 Gangetic Dolphin, Platanista. 



In the vertebral column the atlas alone is free, the remain- 

 ing cervicals being fused. There are only eleven dorsal vertebrae, 

 eight lumbars, and twenty-four caudals. The breastbone of this 

 Whale is a roughly-triangular bone made up of three pieces. 

 Four cartilaginous sternal ribs are attached to this bone. The 

 scapula is remarkable for the fact that it is concave on the outer 

 and convex on the inner surface ; otherwise it is quite typically 

 Cetacean in form. The shortness of the pectoral limb is slrowii. 

 by the phalangeal formula, which is as follows : — I 1, II 5, 

 III 5, IV 4, V 3. 



^ See Pouchet, "Contribution a I'histoire du spermaceti," Bergens Museums 

 Aarlogfor 1S93, No. 1. 



