316 ! The Hiflory of ANIMALS. 
oil obtained from the brain and out of the diploe of the cranium of this fpecies of 
whale, which was the cafe at fir A, it is no wonder that it was kept up at a confidera- 
ble price ; but, when it was difcovered that any oil would do, the price foon became 
moderate. The method of making this pure lubAance out of fo coarfe a matter is 
by boiling the oil a confiderable time, with a folution of any fixed alkaline fait /the 
German pot-afh or pearl-afhes is generally ufed, when it has been boiled with this li¬ 
quor, till it become white and firm ; it is melted over-again fingly a great many times, 
and at length, after feveral walkings to get out the faline particles that might remain 
in it, it becomes the white, firm fubAance we fee, and is cut out into flakes, with knives 
made for that purpofe. 
It was proper to be the more large on the origin and preparation of this medicine, 
becaufe people have run at all times into great errors about it; nor are there wanting* 
even at this time, fome who, from the idle name that has been given it, fuppofe it to 
be the real fperm of the whale. What our repeated boilings and bathings do to this 
oil, the motion of the falt-water will fometimes do for it, without any farther trou¬ 
ble; and to this accident has been owing the firA knowledge of the drug. It was 
found fometimes floating in large irregular mafles, on the furface of the water, in the 
Northern Seas; it was afterwards obferved, that this matter was principally found in 
places where the carcafles of dead whales had been broken up, and walked to pieces by 
the water; and fucceeding obfervation fhewed, that the oil about the head of this par¬ 
ticular whale was what moll generally afforded it. On the firfl difcovery that it be¬ 
longed to the whale-kind, there prevailed a random opinion of it’s being the femen 
or fperm of that filh ; and, before fo much was known as that it belonged to the 
whale or to any filh at all, it was fuppofed to be a mineral fubllance, a kind of bitu¬ 
men thrown up from the earth at the bottom of the fea, and floating on it’s furface. 
We find this opinion flrongly maintained by Schroder and others of his time; and it 
is, indeed, but very lately that we have been let into the fecret of what it truly is* 
and in what manner prepared. 
When we trace in this manner the feveral fleps to truth in a repent inflance, we fhall 
not wonder at the many errors we find in the old writers, in regard to the drugs, and 
other productions of nature or art, in different climates, while they were very well ac¬ 
quainted with their external furfaces, their qualities and effects. 
T H R I C H E C H U S. 
T H E Thrichechus has teeth in both jaws: there is no fin upon the back, and 
the fkin is very tough, firm, and hairy. 
Of this Angular genus there is but one known fpecies. 
Thrichechus. %\)£ 
This Angular creature feems to be the link in the great chain of beings, uniting the 
fifh and the quadruped tribes, as it is the only fifh whofe fkin is hairy, and like the 
quadrupeds ; it’s whole appearance alfo has fomething in it different from the fifh- 
kind, and approaching to that of the land-animals: it grows to fifteen feet, or more, 
in length, but it’s more frequent fize is about ten or twelve feet, and it is confiderably 
thick, in proportion : the head is moderately large, and is oblong, rounded, and has 
much the appearance of that of fome of the quadruped kind ; it has been fuppofed to 
referable that of a cow; but, on a Arid! obfervation, it will be found more like that 
of a hog : the eyes are very fmall, and there are two fmall apertures in the place of 
external ears: the mouth is not very large, but it has flefhy and thick lips, refembling 
thofe of quadrupeds, and there are each way two long teeth which fhew themfelves: 
thefe are fix inches long in a well-grown fifh, and of the thicknefs of a man’s 
thumb. 
There is no fin on the back : the pedoral fins are of an extreamly fingular figure; 
they Aand on the thorax, and refemble the feet of quadrupeds: each of them is 
formed of five toes, as it were, connected by a membrane ; each toe has three articu¬ 
lations, but the whole fin is not capable of contraction. 
The tail is large, and is placed horizontally, in the manner of that of the ceta¬ 
ceous fifhes: the females have between the peCtoral fins two large, round, and fair 
br ea As 
