SPE 
make bread of them when their crops of 
corn fail. 
SPERMACETI is found in the hejjd of 
the Physeter macrocephalus, a species of 
whale ; it is obtained in an unctuous mass, 
from which oil is obtained by expression. 
Spermaceti is also found in other cetaceous 
fishes, and in other parts of the body, mix- 
ed with the oil. It is a fine white substance 
of a crystalized texture, very brittle, and 
has little taste or smell. It crystalizes in 
the form of shining silvery plates. It melts 
at the temperature of 112°. With a greater 
heat it may be distilled without change; 
but, by repeated distillation, it is decom- 
posed, and partly converted into a brown 
acid liquid. It is soluble in boiling alcohol, 
but it separates when the solution cools. 
It is also soluble in ether, both cold and 
hot. In the hot solution it concretes on 
cooling into a solid mass. Spermaceti 
is scarcely at all soluble in the acids. It 
combines readily with the pure alkalies, 
with sulphur, and with the fixed oils. By 
exposure to the air it becomes rancid. The 
uses of spermaceti are well known, and par- 
ticularly in the manufacture of candles. 
Spermaceti differs chiefly from oil, by its 
solubility in alcohol and ether. According 
to Dr. Bostock, it requires 150 times its 
weight of alcohol, boiling hot, to dissolve it, 
and, as the fluid cools, the spermaceti pre- 
cipitates. 
Spermaceti candles are of modern manu- 
facture ; they are made smooth, with a fine 
gloss, free from rings and scars, superior to 
the finest wax-candles in colour and lustre ; 
and, when genuine, leave no spot or stain 
on the finest silk, cloth, or linen. A me- 
thod has been lately proposed by Dr. Smith 
Gibbes, of Magdalen College, Oxford, to 
convert animal muscle into a substance 
much resembling spermaceti. The process 
is remarkably simple : nothing more is ne- 
cessary than to take a dead carcase and ex- 
pose it to a stream of running water: it will 
in a short time be changed to a mass of fat- 
ty mattej. To remove the offensive smell, 
a quantity of nitrous acid may then be 
poured upon it, which, uniting with the fe- 
tid matter, the fat is separated in a pure 
state. This acid indeed turns it yellow, 
but it may be rendered white and pure by 
the action of the oxygenated muriatic acid. 
Dr. Gibbes brought about the same change 
in a much shorter time. He took three 
lean pieces of mutton, and poured on them 
the three mineral acids, and he perceived, 
that at the end of three days each was much 
SPH 
altered j that in the nitrous acid w’as much 
softened, and, on separating the acid from 
it, he found it to be exactly the same with 
that which he had before got from the wa- 
ter; that in the muriatic acid was not in 
that time so much altered ; the vitriolic 
acid had turned the other black. See the 
article Adipocire. 
SPERMACOCE, in botany, button weed, 
a genus of the Tetrandria Monogynia class 
and order. Natural order of Stellatre. Ru- 
biacese, Jussieu. Essential character : co- 
rolla one-petalled, funnel-shaped ; seeds 
two, two-toothed. Thefe are twenty spe- 
cies. 
SPHiERANTHUS, in botany, a genus 
of the Syngenesia Polygamia Segregata 
class and order. Natural order of Conipo- 
sit® Capital®. Cinarocephal®, Jussieu. 
Essential character : calyx eight-flowered ; 
corolla tubular, hermaphrodite, and indis- 
tinct : female, receptacle scaly ; down none. 
There are four species. 
SPHjERIA, in botany, a genns of the 
Cryptogamia Fungi. Generic character : 
fructifications mostly spherical, opening at 
the top, whilst young filled with jelly, when 
old with a blackish powder. They grow on 
the bark or wood of other plants; capsules 
often immersed, so that their orifices only 
are visible : most of the species are without 
a stem. 
SPHflEROCARPUS, in botany, a genus 
of the Cryptogamia Hepatic®. Generic 
character : calyx ventricose, undivided ; 
seeds numerous, collected into a globe. 
SPHAGNUM, in botany, a genus of the 
Cryptogamia Musci. Generic character : 
male, flower club-shaped ; anthers flat ; cap- 
sule on the same plant, sessile, covered 
with a lid, without any entire veil ; mouth 
smooth". 
SPHERE, is a solid contained under one 
uniform round surface, such as would be 
formed by the revolution of a circle about 
a diameter thereof, as an axis. Thus the cir- 
cle A E B D (see Plate XIV. Miscel. fig. 2,) 
revolving about the diameter AB, will 
generate a sphere, whose surface will be 
formed by the circumference of the circle. 
Definitions, l. The centre and axis of a 
sphere, are the same as the centre and dia- 
meter of the generating circle: and as a 
ciicle has an indefinite number of dia- 
meters, so a sphere may be considered as 
having also an indefinite number of dia- 
meters, round any one of which the sphere 
may be conceived to be generated. 2. Cir- 
' cles of the sphere are those circles describ- 
i 
