The oil obtained from the Sperm Whale is the purest of all the animal oils employed in commerce; and is, consequently, the one most valued for domestic illumination, as well as for lubricating the more delicate kinds of machinery.
It is peculiar in being almost entirely destitute of odour; while other whale oils although equally prepared from the recent blubber, and by a process precisely similar have a strong and disagreeable smell. In the state in which it is received from the whaler, Sperm-oil contains a variable proportion of Spermaceti, and other gross matters, technically named "the foot"; it is separated from these by being strained through woollen bags, and is then fit for its ordinary uses.
Spermaceti. is most abundant in the Sperm Whale, and commerce is supplied from this species alone. It is very generally diffused through the blubber, but obtains in largest quantity, and in the greatest state of purity, in the fatty structure of the head, whence its technical name "head-matter".
Crude Spermaceti, as newly obtained from the case of the whale, is fluid, transparent, nearly colourless, without odour, and has a bland and creamy taste, not unlike that of very fresh butter. It does not concrete at the ordinary temperature of the tropics, at sea, but in low temperatures, it assumes a dull-white hue and the consistence of lard.
At present its use in pharmacy is limited to the composition of cerates and ointments. . Its principal commercial value is derived from the extent to which it is employed as a substitute for wax, in the manufacture of candles.
Ambergris is the most rare and costly product of the Sperm Whale, and one peculiar to this species of Cetacean. . It was usually found floating on the seas of warm climates, and was generally considered to be of a resinous or bituminous nature; and when subsequently detected in the intestines of the Cachalot, a doubt was still entertained of its true character, and whether it had not been swallowed by the animal rather than produced within its body. . Ambergris is a morbid concretion in the intestines of the Cachalot, deriving its origin either from the stomach or biliary ducts, and allied in its nature to gall-stones.
The only use made of Ambergris in this country is as a perfume, and for this purpose it is chiefly prepared in the form of an alcoholic solution, or essence. It possesses a peculiar property of increasing the power of other perfumes to which it may be added . .The retail price it bears in London is about one guinea the ounce.