128 
SPERMACETI. 
ever, during the seventeenth century it appears to have 
been largely used as a medicine for both internal and 
external complaints. 4 ‘ The virtues of this concrete/ 3 
says an old writer, “ are those of a mild emollient ; it is 
of considerable use in pains and erosions of the intestines, 
in coughs proceeding from thin sharp defluxions, and in 
general in all cases where the solids require to be relaxed, 
or acrimonious humours to be obtunded. 35 
In 1787, Mr. Hunter gave the first scientific account 
of spermaceti, before the Royal Society, since which 
time it has been gradually losing ground in the public 
estimation as an internal medicinal remedy, but is still 
used largely in the composition of the unguentum cetaeei 9 
and has within the last few years formed the principal 
ingredient in the composition of candles, which are found 
little inferior to those which are made of wax. 
In Brande’s Manual of Chemistry we find the follow- 
ing remarks upon sperm oil and spermaceti. 
“ The oil of the spermaceti whale is more pure, and 
burns more perfectly and more brilliantly in lamps than 
common whale oil ; it deposits, as it cools after the death 
of the animal, a crystalline, fatty substance, called sperma- 
ceti, which is purified by pressure and boiling in weak 
solutions of potassa ; it is then washed, fused in boiling 
water, and cast into blocks and cakes, which exhibit a 
beautiful lamellarly- crystalline texture, especially when 
the interior liquid part is suffered to run out of the 
exterior concrete case. It has a greasy feel ; its specific 
gravity is about 0*94; it fuses at 1 12 0 ; 100 parts of 
boiling alcohol of 08*21 dissolves 3*5 parts, of which 
