The price of ambergris is very high : in London, ac cording to Aitkin, it is retailed at from 20 to 24 shillings per ounce; and hence its frequent adulteration with wax, benzoin, labdanum, wood of aloes, storax, &c. scented with musk; it is difficult, however, to imitate it accurately.
Many different opinions have been found regarding its origin. Metzger, in his ,imbrologai, and Schroek, have collected the different opinions of authors on this subject. It would afford but little amusement or in struction to give a detail of these hypotheses; we shall therefore mention only what appears to be the most probable explanation of the origin and formation of this interesting production.
Ambergris has been frequently found in the intestines of a particular species of whale, denominated by natu ralists, the Physeterullac•octphalus, Linn. and hence is conjectured to be an animal product. So early as the 385 and 387 Nos. of the Philosophical Transactions, a fact of this kind is related. Kempfer, in his History of Japan, informs us, that the Japanese obtain their amber gris principally from a species of whale common on their shores; that it is contained in their intestines, and is intermixed with the faces. In Chili, ambergris is denominated ..1fayene, which signifies the excrement of whales. (Molina, Hist. ?A'at. du Chili, Trad. Fr. p. 61.) According to Julius Scaliger. (Exercit. subt. 104.) the books of the Arabians contain numerous instances of ambergris found in whales. Monardus mentions a whale which produced an hundred pounds of ambergris. (h's .Vat. Cur. Dec. 2 Obs. 21.) Captain James Coffin, master of a ship employed in the southern whale fishery, was examined by a committee of privy council, in the year 1791, in regard to the nature of ambergris. He related, that he found 362 ounces of this substance in the intestines of a female whale, struck off the coast of Guinea; part of it was voided from the rectum on cut ting up the blubber, and the remainder was collected within the intestinal canal.' The whales, that contain
ambergris, are always lean and sickly, yield but very little oil, and seem almost torpid; so that when a sper maceti whale has this appearance, and does not emit Leces on being harpooned, the fishers generally expect to find ambergris within it. It appears highly probable, that all ambergris is generated in the bowels of the physeter macrocephalus, or spermaceti whale; but it is uncertain whether it is the cause or effect of disease. Another proof of this origin of ambergris is, that it ge nerally has a number of hard bony fragments included iu it, N%hich are the beaks of the sepia, or untie fish, on the spermaceti whale is known to feed, and which are always found mixed with the whale's excrements, more or less broken down in the intestinal canal. See J. l'idus Klobius, ?Imbne Wittenbergx, 1666. 4to. thliricus VolIgnad, De 4mbra .4ugustana insolen ooris ponderis, Ephem. Ae. Nat. Curios, Dec. 1. Ann. iii. p. 4 18. Robert Boyle's Letter concerning ?nzbergrxce, Phil. Trans. vol. viii. No. 97. p. Robert Fredw ay's account of a great piece of Ambergris thrown on the island of Jamaica, Phil. Trans. vol. xix. No. 232. p. 711, 712. N. Chevalier, Description de la piece d',1m bregrh, que la chandire d'4msttrdain a rem des Lades Orientates, pesant 182 livres, Amsterdam, 1700, 4to. Boylston on Ambergi is found in whales, Phil. Trans. vol. xxxiii. No. 385. p. 193. Casparus Neumann, De umbra grisea, Phil Trans. vol. xxxviii. Abraham Abel even, sur l'origine de l'.4mbregris. Hist. de l'4cad. Ber lin, 1763, p. 125, 128. Francis Scbwediauer's account of Ambergris, Phil. Trans. vol. lxxiii. p. 226,241. Rome Lettre sur les bees de Seche guise recontrent dans l'.imbrtgris. Journal de Physique, t. xxv. p. 372-374. On the production of Ambergris, Phil. Trans. vol. lxxxi. p. 43, 47. Uber die erzeugung des grauen ambers Volgts Magazin. 8. Band. 1. Stuck, p. 77, 83. (r)