312 
P H Y S E T E R. 
mouth of which was fhut with a fphin&er: five feet be¬ 
hind it was the anus, likewife furnifhed with a fphindler, 
and the difiance from the anus to the divifion in the 
blades of the tail was fourteen feel” This is reprefented 
at fig. 2. 
The fize of the largeft of this fpecies is fixty or feventy 
feet in length ; but there is afinall variety, not more than 
fixteen feet long. The throat of the larger kind is wide 
enough to fwallow an ox. It will fnatch at a boat, and 
devour the men. M. Haas (Dili, on the Leviathan, p. 
253.) fays, he fawone, the tongue of which weighed 6000 
lbs. it was 18 feet long, and 10 broad. The whole filh 
was 70 feet long; the jaw i6§. It feeds, however, in ge¬ 
neral, on fifii ; and vaft quantities, often of a large fize, 
are found in its ftomach. From its fize, as well as its 
fiercenefs and agility, the capture of the cachalot would 
feldom be attempted by the filhers, were it not for the 
fake of thofe valuable medicines, fpermaceti and amber¬ 
gris, which thefe animals have been found to contain. 
The various purpofes to which thefe fubftances are ap¬ 
plied, both as drugs and articles of luxury, have ren¬ 
dered the cachalot, which fupplies them, a fifii in great 
requeft ; and its capture the moft advantageous objedl in 
the Greenland and South-fea trade. 
Spermaceti is the name erroneoufly given to that fub- 
ftar.ce which is found in the head of the cachalot, and 
which'is by no means the femen nor the brain of the 
animal. Goldfmith gives the following account of the 
method by which it is extra&ed. The outward Ikin of 
the head being taken off, a covering of fat appears, about 
three inches thick; and under that, inftead of a bony 
fkull, the animal has only another thick fkin that ferves 
for a covering and defence of the brain. The firft cavity 
or chamber of the brain is filled with that fpermaceti 
which is fuppofed of the greateft purity, and is of the 
higheft value. From this cavity there is generally drawn 
about feven barrels of the cleared fpermaceti, that, thrown 
upon water, coagulates like cheefe. Below this there is 
another chamber, juft over the gullet, which is about 
feven feet high, and this alfo contains the drug, but of 
lefs value. It is diftributed in this cavity like honey in 
a hive, in fmall cells, feparated from each other by a mem¬ 
brane like the inner fkin of an egg. In proportion as the 
oily fubftanceis drawn away from this part, it fills anew 
from a canal along the back-bone ; and from this is gene¬ 
rally obtained about nine barrels of oil. Befides this, 
the fpinal marrow, or a canal running even with it, which 
is about as thick as a man’s thigh, and reaches all along 
the back-bone to the tail, where it is no thicker than 
one’s finger, affords no inconfiderable quantity. 
Formerly the fpermaceti was obtained but in fmall 
quantities, and was fold at a very high price, from the 
iuppofition of its great efficacy as a medicine. Though 
it ftillente'rs into the compofitions of the apothecary, yet 
it is rather to give a confiftency to his medicines than to 
add to their virtue ; and, fince the art of converting the 
whole oil of the cachalot into fpermaceti by boiling has 
been difcovered, the article has decrealed rapidly in its 
value. It has now fallen below the price of wax, and is 
ufed inftead of it for candles. 
Ambergris is the other medicine for which mankind 
are indebted to the cachalot ; and this fubftance, rather 
than the former, fhould have obtained the name of 
“ fpermaceti,” becaufe it is found in the place where the 
feminal veffels of other animals are commonly fituated. 
For a long time the world was taught to believe that am¬ 
bergris was a fubftance to be found only in fmall quanti¬ 
ties upon the furface of the water. The trade in thefe 
articles was originally in the hands of men of obfcure and 
fulpicious characters, and this was one of the arts by 
which they endeavoured to add to the myfterious nature 
and value of the commodity. Time, which reveals the 
fecrets of the mercenary, has at laft difcovered that this 
medicine is the produce of the cetaceous fifties. Among 
the inteftines of the cachalot is found a bag three or four 
feet long, filled with liquor of a yellowifh colour, and 
thinner than oil ; and in this fluid the ambergris is feen 
floating in round lumps, from one to twenty pounds 
weight, and never above four in the fame fifii. Thefe 
balls of ambergris, the purpofes of which in medicine and 
perfumes are fo well known, are not indifcriminately 
found in every filh; indeed it proceeds from a diforder in 
the animal, a conftipation in the bowels. 
3. Phyfeter microps, the fiiarp-nofed cachalot: along 
dorfal fin; upper jaw long and pointed; teeth fliarp, 
hooked. This fpecies fometimes vifits the coarts of Bri¬ 
tain: a dead one was caft alhore near Edinburgh in the 
year 1769, which meafured fifty-four feet from the mouth 
to the tail; and its greateft circumference was thirty feer. 
On the 13th of June, i8oz, a fmall one was caught be¬ 
tween Dover and Calais. The head of this animal is of 
an enormous fize, far exceeding the proportions of the 
whale. The upper jaw projects five feet beyond the 
lower; and its length is about fifteen feet, the other be¬ 
ing only ten. The lower jaw is armed with forty-two 
teeth, all pointing outward to meet the fockets, where 
they enter into the upper. The teeth are about feven 
inches in circumference at the bottom, (harpening as you 
approach the top ; they are all bent, and, like the teeth 
of the other cetaceous fifties, they are white and poliftied 
like ivory. 
( 3 . A variety with ftraight teeth, which is faid to grow 
a hundred feet long. 
4. Phyfeter turfio, the high-finned cachalot: dorfal fin 
very long; teeth flat at the top. Inhabits the Northern 
Ocean ; a hundred feet long. The dorfal fin is ftvarp, 
ftanding ereCt, and at a diftance refembling the mart of a 
veffel ; tongue fliarp. 
5. Phyfeter cylindricus, the cylindrical cachalot: fliape 
cylindrical; a protuberance on the back. This has been 
confounded with the microps, or fharp-nofed cachalot; 
but Cepede makes it a diftinct genus as well as fpecies, 
forming three genera of the fifties we call cachalots. 
This filh at a diftance has very little the appearance of 
an animated being; it looks rather like the trunk of a 
large tree, did we know of any tree big enough to compare 
with it; or we might miftake it for one of thofe vaft 
antique circular towers which earthquakes have fome¬ 
times precipitated into the fea, were it not perceived to 
float on the furface of the ocean. This cylindrical form 
is by no means interrupted at the head ; for the lower 
jaw ftiuts into the upper, fo that the fnout appears trun¬ 
cated, prefenting a large flat furface, vertical, and almoft 
circular. The head is nearly half the length of the fifii, 
and its height, or flat furface, nearly equal to its length. 
The lower jaw is flatter and narrower than the upper; 
the aperture of the mouth therefore is longer than wide; 
yet it is of a tremendous fize, and, when the lower jaw 
falls, it exhibits on each fide a row of fliarp hooked 
teeth, larger towards the front, where fometimes Hands 
an odd one; thefe teeth are four or five and twenty on 
each fide; when the jaw is raifed, and the mouth flint, 
they enter into fockets hollowed out in the upper. The 
largeft of thefe teeth have been compared in fliape and 
fize to a great cucumber; there are alfo three or four fiat 
teeth, almoft concealed, in the upper jaw. The tongue 
is moveable, at leaft laterally; but it is very ftiort and 
narrow'. The throat, it is faid, is wide enough to admit 
an ox ; the ftomach is near two yards and a half long. 
The fpout-holes open about over the middle of the lower 
jaw; the eyes are ftill farther from the end of the fnout, 
but not fo far back as the angle formed by the union of 
the lips 5 they are very near the upper lip, and are very 
fmall. 
The body is cylindrical towards the head, conical 
towards the tail. There is very little diftinflion between 
head and body; therefore the cylinder is continued un¬ 
interrupted till the rifing of the hump, which is about 
half a yard high, its balls tapering away for about a yard. 
Behind the hump begins the tail, which is thick, conical, 
