34 PHYSETER MACROCETHALUS. 



not very readily dissolved in the stomach, and is therefore by no 

 means a proper food for weak and sickly persons. Bacon, caro 

 suilla vel porcina salita et infumata, is a coarse and heavy food, 

 only fit to be taken in considerable quantity by robust and labour- 

 ing people. When it constitutes a principal part of the daily diet, 

 it brings on the scurvy and other cachectic disorders. 

 Off. Pret. — Adeps preparata, L. D. 



VII. 



PHYSETER MACROCEPIIALUS. 



Great-headed Cachalot, or Great Spermaceti Whde. 



Order Cete, Lin. Cetacea, Cuv. 

 Gen. Char. Head very large ; inferior teeth 18 to 23 

 on each side of the jaw; upper jaw broad, elevated, 

 without teeth, or with these short and concealed in 

 the gum ; lower jaw elongated, narrow, corresponding 

 to a furrow in the upper, and armed with thick and 

 conical teeth entering into corresponding cavities in 

 the upper jaw ; spiracu/ar orifices united at the upper 

 part of the snout ; a dorsal fin in some species, a 

 simple eminence in others ; cartalaginous cavities in 

 the upper part of the head, filled with an oily matter. 



Sfec. Char. Lower teeth 20 to 23 on each side, 

 recurved and pointed at the extremity ; small conical 

 teeth concealed in the upper gums ; tail narrow and 

 conical ; back convex, with the rudiments of a fin ; 

 upper part of the body blackish or slate blue ; length 

 45 to 60 feet. 



Grand Cachalot; Jionna' . F.ncy. Meth. art. Cetologie, t. 6. f. 1 j-.nd t. 7. f. 2. 



Cachalot macrocephale ; La Cepede, p. 16G. Physeter macrocephalus ; Lin. 



Syst. Gmelin. i. 227. Shaw Zool. ii. t. 228. 

 Cachalot, Fr. ; Pottisch, Can- chelot t, Ger. ; Kaskelot, Nor. 



