132 
AMBERGRIS. 
they and other such fishermen became very curious in 
searching all such whales they killed, and it has been 
since found in lesser quantities in several male whales 
of that kind, and in no other, and that scarcely in one 
of a hundred of them. They add further, that it is 
contained in a cyst or bag, without any inlet or outlet 
to it, and that they have sometimes found the bag 
empty and yet entire ; the bag is nowhere to be found 
but near the genital parts of the fish. The ambergris is 
when first taken out moist, and of an exceedingly strong 
and offensive smell.” This letter was written to the 
Royal Society in 1724 .—Phil. Trans . vol. xxxiii. p. 193. 
In the same year, however, we have another letter 
from America, written to the Royal Society by the Hon. 
Paul Dudley, f.r.s., who, after telling us that the old 
sperm whales carry their young ones “on the flukes of 
their tails, who with their fins clasp about the small, 
and hold themselves on,” also says “ one of our country 
doctors tells me that the tooth of this fish (sperm whale) 
shaved or powdered, and so infused in liquor, equals 
the hartshorn, and has been used in the small-pox, and 
given to lying-in women in case of sickness, with 
success ! — the quantity is as much as will lie upon an 
English shilling.” Further on in the same letter he 
states, “ I meddle not here with the precious ambergris 
found in this whale, because I design to close the whole 
with that discovery.” And here is his conclusion : 
“ But truth,” says he, “ is the daughter of time ; it is 
now at length found out, that occultum naturae is an 
animal production, and bred in the body of the sperma- 
