The Hifiory of ANIMALS. 315 
been wafhed on fhore, and it’s body deftroyed by the waves, the tooth ftill remained, 
and it’s Angularity induced any body that came in fight of it to pick it up. It was 
long known, before the fifh was heard of j and the firfit conje&ure about it was, that it 
belonged to fome land-animal j it was immediately after declared to be the horn of the 
unicorn. Medicinal virtues were then afcribed to it, and it’s fcarcity made it fell for a 
vaft price. It is but a century ago that there were only two or three of them known 
of, and one of thofe, in the cabinet of a German Prince, had been purchafed at the ex¬ 
pence of two thoufand pounds: at prefent we have fcarce any of our collectors with¬ 
out it; and it is fo common, as to be made a kind of fign at the doors of many of 
our druggifts fhops. 
C A T O D O N. 
T H E Catodon has teeth only in the lower jaw: there is no fin on the back, and 
the fiftule is either in the head, or very forward on the roftrum. 
Catodon fifiula in rofro, 
The Cato don, with the fiftule in the r oftrum* 
This does not grow to the fize of many of the other whales, thirty-five or forty, 
feet being it’s ufual length, when full-grown, and it being more frequently met with 
much fmaller: the head is fmall, fhort, thick, and of a roundifh figure : the mouth 
is fmall, and the upper jaw is fmooth, but in the lower there are teeth 5 the eyes are 
very fmall, and they Hand high up in the head, and at a confiderable difiance from one 
another: the fiftule is prominent, and ftands very forward on the roftrum; the body 
is thick and unwieldy; it’s diameter is nearly equal to half it’s length, and it grows 
gradually fmaller to the tail: the back is ridged 5 the fides are rounded and very pro¬ 
minent, and the belly is fomewhat flatted. 
This is not met with in the Greenland Seas, but has been thrown on fhore at the 
Orkney iflands, and on fome other parts of Scotland. Sibbald calls it Balasna minor 
in inferiore maxilla tantum dentata, fine fpina aut pinna in dorfo 5 Ray has borrowed 
this name from Sibbald, and none of the other writers have mentioned it, 
Catodon fifiula in cervice, 3 Cf)g 
The Catodon , with the fifiule in the neck, 
This is a considerably large whale; it grows to fixty feet in length, and to more 
than half that in diameter: the body is very thick, bulky, and unwieldy ; the head is 
very large ; it is elevated at the vertex, and broad toward the roftrum, and has feverai 
irregular depreflions on it: the eyes are larger than in moft of the whale-kind, and yet 
they are very fmall, in proportion to the bulk of the fifh : the mouth is large; there 
are no teeth in the upper jaw, but there are about two and forty in the lowef j thefe are 
placed in two feries, and are each about the bignefs of a man’s thumb : the fiftule is 
large, and is fituated in the very hindermoft part of the head, fo that it feems in the 
neck: the back is very much elevated, and the belly is flatted j the fides are promi¬ 
nent and rounded, and the whole fifh is covered with a tough and firm fkin : the tail 
is very broad and horizontal. 
This fpecies is frequent in the moft Northern Seas, and fometimes has been thrown 
on fhore in Holland, and on the northern coafts of Scotland : it has been very well 
known to the generality of authors. Ray and Sibbald call it Balsna major in inferiore 
maxilla tantum dentata, macrocephaia, bipinnis; Clufius calls it, limply, Cete ; Wil- 
lughby, Cete Clufto defcriptum Pot-walfifh Batavis maris accolis diCtum j Charleton 
calls it Cetus dentatus j and Purchafs and fome of our Englifh writers, a Trump. 
The drug fo much in ufe at this time, under the improper name of Sperma-ceti, 
was originally made only from the oil procured from the head of this particular fpe¬ 
cies of whale, and hence the fifh obtained the name of the Sperma-ceti Whale : but 
at prefent our druggifts purchafe it of people, who make a trade of preparing it, and 
who make it from the fediment of any kind of fifh-oil j they generally purchafe, for 
this purpofe, the bottoms of the calks at our oil-fhops, and from this coarfe matter 
make the fineft fperma-ceti we are acquainted with. While it was really made from the 
oil 
