AMBERGRIS

(From arabre, and gris, grey amber.) This substance has been found in the intestines of the spermaceti whale: it is probably a product of disease; perhaps a kind of gallstone. It has also been found upon the coasts of various tropical countries, in ma es of various sizes, of a grey, speckled appearance, and interspersed throughout its substance with the beaks of the sepia octopod a, which is the common food of the whale. When genuine, ambergris has a peculiar odour, not easily described or imitated, and which is exceedingly diffusive, especially in solution, so that a very minute quantity of ambergris is perceptible in perfumes, and is thought to exalt their odour. A grain or two, when rubbed down with sugar, and added to a hogshead of claret, is very perceptible in the wine and gives it a flavour, by some considered as an improvement. The best ambergris is softish and somewhat waxy when cut; its specific gravity varies from 780 to 896: it fuses at 140° or 150°, and at a higher temperature gives out a white smoke, which condenses into a crystalline fatty matter. Its chief component (about 80 per cent.) is a peculiar fatty matter (ambreine), which may be obtained by boiling it in alcohol; as the solution cools, it deposits crystals, which may be purified by pre ure in folds of blotting paper. Ambreine fuses at lono; its odour is agreeable, and it rises in vapour at 220O. [s. 52]