Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/131

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for the Sperma-ceti whale in 1720. His account is as

follows.

Anibergreafc is found only in the Sperma-ceti whales, and confifts of balls or globular bodies of various fizes, from about three to twelve inches diameter, and weighing from a pound and a half to twenty two pounds, lying loofe in a large oval bag or bladder, three or four foot long, and two or three foot deep and wide, almoft in the form of an ox's bladder, only the ends are drawn more acute, refembling a black- fmith's long bellows, with a fpout running tapering into, and through the length of the Penis, and a du£t or canal opening into the other end of the bag, and coming toward the kid- neys. This bag lies juft over the tefticles, which are above a foot long, and is placed length wife at the root of the Pe- nis, about four or five foot below the navel, and three or four above the anus. This bag or bladder is almoft full of a deep orange coloured liquor not quite fo thick as oil, and fmelling as ftrong, or rather ftronger of the fame fcent with the balls of Ambergreafe, which float and fwim loofe in it. The infide of the bag is very deeply tinged with the fame co- lour as the liquor, which alfo may be found in the canal of the Penis. The balls feem to be pretty hard, while the whale is alive, in as much, as there are many times found upon opening of the bag, large concave fhelves of the fame fub- ftance and confiftence, that have fcaled off from them, and the balls themfelvcs fecm to be compbfed of feveral diftinct coats, inclofing one another, fomethihg like the coats of an onion. As to the number of balls, Mr. Atkins never above four in a bag ; where he once found one that weighed twenty-one pounds, which was the largeft he ever faw, but there was only that one in the bag.

To one Sperma-ceti whale that has any of thefe balls, there are two that have nothing, but a deep orange coloured liquor in their bags ; which confirms what another whale- man affured, that the Ambergreafe was found only in fuch Sper?na-ceti whales, as are old and well grown. It is the general opinion of the whale-men, that the Ambergreafe is produced only by the male, or the bull Sperma-ceti whale. The reafon may be, that the cows are hardly ever taken, as being much more timorous than the males, and almoft im- poflible to be come at, unlefs when found afleep on the wa- ter, or detained by their calves, Mr. Atkins's method of getting the Ambergreaje out of the whale was thus; after the fifh is killed, he turns the belly upwards, fixes a tackle to the penis, cuts through the rim of the belly till he comes at the entrails, and then fearching for the duel:, or canal at the further end of the bag, he ties it pretty near to the bag, and cuts the duel: off' beyond it, upon which he draws forth the Penis by the tail, and the Ambergreafe bag entirely follows it, and comes clean and whole out of the belly. The bag, an ingenious perfon conjectures to be the urinary bladder, and the Ambegreafe ball to be a kind of concretion, formed out of the greafy odoriferous fubftance of the liquor aforefaid contained within it. Phil. Tranf. N°. 387. p. 266. feq. To this account it is objected, that the Sperma-ceti whales are found in the northern fea, where no Ambergreaje is to be met with. — Another objection is, that thofe huge pieces of Ambergreafe, mentioned by Garcias ab Horto, and other writers, are hardly reconcileable to this fyftem. Garc, ab Hort. Hift. Arom. 1. 1. c. 1. Verdr. Phyf. p. 2. c. 6. §. 6. Ambergrcafe plainly appears to be no animal fubftance, from the chemical principles obtained from it ; for it affords no urinous volatile fpirit, or fait ; but, on the contrary, a fma'll quantity of an acid fait, exactly like that of amber. In fhort, the various erroneous conjectures, about the nature and origin of this fubftance, have been almoft innumerable ; but it is affuredly of mineral origin, and is no other than a light and frothy bitumen, exfudating out of the earth in a fluid form, and afterwards hardening into the confiftence in which we fee it. Its having been once fluid is evinced by the fame proof with that of amber, which is, that it frequently contains extraneous fubftances immerfed into its moft folid maffes, which could never have been admitted there, but when it was in a foft and fluid ftate. Small (hells, little pebbles, and grains of fand, are not unfrequently found in it j and fometimes the heads, and beak mouths of the calamary, and other fifh of that kind : thefe have been miftaken from their figure, for the beaks of parroquets and other birds, by thofe who were ignorant of the nature of the fifh they be- longed to : and hence many extravagant conjectures have arifen as to the origin of the body itfelf. /////'sHift. of Fof. p. 112. Authors have talked of two kinds of Ambergrcafe, a black and a grey, of which they acknowledged the grey the better ; but the truth is, that thefe are only two appearances of the fame fubftance. All Ambergrcafe is naturally compofed of whitifh and blackiih particles, the whitifh ones are the fineft perfume, and when they are in greateft abundance, the whole is the fweeteft and molt valuable ; but thefe whitifh particles being crumbly and eafily deftroyed, are fometimes in a great meafure wafhed off, and the others left almoft alone ; the jnaflcs in this ftate muft be greatly inferior to the others in fmell, and in value, and of a dark colour, and thefe are what are called black Ambergreafe. Hill's Hift. of Fof. p. 412. 5

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Ambergreafe is found in more or lefs abundance, in mod parts of the Eaft-Indies. Japan furnifhes a large quantity ; and the eaftern parts of Java, and the Maldive iflands have enriched many who knew how to fearch after this commodity. It is in thefe places generally found faftened to the roots of trees, that grow on the fliore ftooping into the fea : while it is un- der water it is foft and pliable like wax, and fometimes little harder than a jelly ; but as foon as taken up, it begins to grow rigid, and foon becomes abfolutely fo.

We are told of much larger pieces of Ambergreafe, than that mentioned in the Cyclopedia, of two foot diameter. One was taken up near the Cape of good Hope, which weighed three hundred pound ; and another, if we may credit the relation, fifteen thoufand pound. Phil. Tranf. N°. 263. P- 573-. See alfo N°. 232. p. 712.

In Jamaica, there is not unfrequently found a large quantity of this valuable commodity. We have, in the philofophica'l tranfactions, an account of a perfon, who, in two voyages, picked up a hundred and fifty pounds weight of it : it is prin- cipally thrown on fhore, on a part of the ifland, called from thence Ambergreafe Point. There is an opinion there, of its being produced by a bird, they fometimes finding the beak, feathers, &c. in it ; and the rude voyager, who collected it, affirming, that he had feen the birds, and that they fwarm like bees, and live about the rocks ; but all this is erroneous. The beaks which are found in Ambergreafe are not the beaks of birds, tho' very like them, but are the mouths of the ca- lamary, a fea-fifh, which are often found picked up by it ; and whatever other matters are at times found lodged among it, are in the fame manner taken up by it, while yet moift and foft, and tofled about by the waves.

The Weftern coaft of Ireland is often found to yield very large, pieces of this precious drug. The coafts of the counties of Sligo, Mayo, Kerry, and the ifles of Arran, are the princi- pal places where it has been found ; and we have, in the phi- lofophical tranf.ictions, an account of a lump found on the coaft of the firft mentioned county, in the year 1691, which weighed fifty two ounces, and was bought upon the fpot for twenty pound, and fold in London for more than a hundred pound. This was blackifh and glolTy like pitch on the out- fide, but when cut it was of a yellowifh colour and more fpungy, fpeckled with whitifh grains, and of a very fine fmell but not fo compact nor of fo grey a colour as the common kind ; other pieces have been found on the fame coafts as black as pitch throughout, and fome almoft entirely white, refembling what Wormius calls in his Mufasum unripe or imperfect Ambergreafe ; yet all thefe have a fine fmell, though the black has the leaft of it. Philof. Tranf. N°. 227. p. 509.

Ambergreafe may be known to be genuine by its fragrant fcent, when a hot needle or pin is thruft into it, and its melting like fat, of an uniform confiftence. Whereas the counterfeit will not yield fuch a fmell, nor prove of fuch a fat texture. Allcyn, New Difpenf. p. 145. One thing however is very remarkable, that this drug, which is the moft fweet of all the perfumes, ihould be capable of being refembled in fmell, by a preparation of one of the moft odious of all flanks. Mr. Homberg found, that a veflel in which he had made a long digeftion of the human feces, acquired a very ftrong and perfect fmell of Ambergreafe, infomuch that any one would have thought a great quantity of eflence of Ambergreafe had been made in it. The perfume was fo ftrong and offenuve, that the veflel was forced to be removed out of the claboratory. Mem. Acad. Par. 1711. Ambergreafe is of much the fame medicinal virtues with mufk ; it is to be ufed for the fame intentions, and generally to en- ter into the fame compofitions, only it is of fomewhat a weaker fcent. ^itine. Difpenf. P. 2. p. 86. See Musk. Hoffman fays, that this drug is the beft of antepileptics;, Oper. Tom. 3. Sect. 1. c. 1. §. 4.

Effence or tincture of Ambergrcafe, is a cordial perfume pre- pared of Ambergreafe^ mufk, civet, and fugar-candy, by digerting them with tartarized fpirit of wine. Qiiincy affirms this to be the beft of all medical perfumes, and fitteft for perfpiration. §)uinc. lib. cit. p. 294. Dr. Newman of Berlin has given us a diifertation on Amber- greafe, in the Phil. Tranf. N\ 435. Where alfo he mentions a very fimple procefs for making the folution of Ambergreafe in fpirit of wine ; it is only to put a twelfth part of Ambergreafe broke into fmall pieces, into highly rectified tartarized fpirit of wine, or even fimple rectified fpirit, without tartar, in a glafs ; and then to expofe them to fuch a heat, as will make the fpirit begin to boil.

Several authors have treated exprefsly on the fubject of Am- bergreafe, as Klobius 3, Clodius a Puteo b , Camelli c , and fome anonymous writers d. Chevalier has publifhed a defcrip-

tion of the large piece of Ambergreafe at Amfterdam e.

[ a Hiftoria Ambrae Wittel. 1666. 4 . Phil. Tranf. N .'28. P- 538- Jour, des Scav. T. 5. p. 147. b £/^„, Bibl. Med. p. 13. Ejufd. Bibl. Phil. p. 34. <= Tra&atus de Ambaro. a G.S. Camello, Phil Tranf. N°. 290- p. 1591. d A Letter of Robert Boyle, Septr. 13. 1673, to the publifher concerning Ambergreafe, and its being a vegetable production. Phil. Tranf. N°. 97. p. 6113. 'Defcription de la Piece d'Ambergris,

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