or Gray Amber, is a solid, opaque, ash-coloured, fatty, inflammable substance, variegated like marble, remarkably light, rugged, and uneven in its surface, and of a fragrant odour when heated. It does not effervesce with acids; it melts freely over the fire into a kind of yellow resin; and is hardly soluble in spirits of wine.

Ambergris is found swimming upon the sea, on the sea-coast, or in the sand near the sea-coast; especially in the Atlantic Ocean, on the sea-coast of Brazil, and that of Madagascar; on the coasts of Africa, of the East Indies, China, Japan, and the Molucca Islands; but most of the ambergris which is brought to England comes from the Bahama Islands, from Providence, &c., where it is found on the It is also sometimes found in the abdomen of whales by the whale-fishermen, always in lumps of various shapes and sizes, weighing from half an ounce to a hundred and more pounds. The piece which the Dutch East India Company bought from the king of Tydore weighed 182 pounds. An American fisherman from Antigua found, inside a whale, about fifty-two leagues south-east from the Windward Islands, a piece of ambergris which weighed about 130 pounds, and sold for L500 sterling.

The most satisfactory account of the real origin of ambergris is that given by Dr Swedialur, in the 73rd volume of the Philosophical Transactions.

We are told by writers on ambergris, that sometimes claws and beaks of birds, feathers of birds, parts of vegetables, shells, fish, and bones of fish, are found in the middle of it, or variously mixed with it. Of a very considerable number of pieces, however, which Dr Swedialur examined, he found none that contained any such thing; though he allows that such substances may sometimes be found in it; but in all the pieces of any great size, whether found on the sea or in the whale, he always found a considerable number of black spots, which, after the most careful examination, appeared to be the beaks of the Sepia Octopodia; and these beaks, he thinks, might be the substances which have hitherto been always mistaken for claws or beaks of birds or shells. The presence of these beaks in ambergris proves evidently that all ambergris containing them is in its origin, or must once have been, of a very soft or liquid nature; as otherwise those beaks could not so constantly be intermixed with it throughout its whole substance.

That ambergris is found either upon the sea and sea-coast, or in the bowels of whales, is a fact universally credited. It is, however, of consequence to know whether ambergris is found in all kinds of whales, or only in a particular species of them; whether it is uniformly to be met with in those animals; and if so, in what part of their body it is to be found.

All these questions we find very fully discussed by Dr Swedialur. According to the best information that he could obtain from several of the most intelligent persons employed in the spermaceti whale-fishery, and in procuring and selling ambergris, it appears that this substance is sometimes found in the belly of the whale, but in that particular species only which is called the spermaceti whale, and which, from its description and delineation, appears to be the Physeter macrocephalus of Linnaeus.

The persons who are employed in the spermaceti whale-fishery confine their views to the physeter macrocephalus. They look for ambergris in all the spermaceti whales they catch, but it seldom happens that they find any. Whenever they harpoon a spermaceti whale, they observe that it constantly not only vomits up whatever it has in its stomach, but also generally discharges its faeces at the same time; and if this latter circumstance takes place, they are commonly disappointed in finding ambergris in its belly. But whenever they discover a spermaceti whale, male or female, which seems torpid and sickly, they are always pretty sure to find ambergris, as the whale in this state seldom voids its faeces upon being harpooned. They likewise generally meet with it in the dead spermaceti whales, which they sometimes find floating on the sea. It is observed also, that the whale in which they find ambergris often has a morbid protuberance, or, as they express it, a kind of gathering in the lower part of its belly, in which, if cut open, ambergris is found. It is remarkable that all those whales in whose bowels ambergris is found, seem not only torpid and sick, but are also constantly leaner than others; so that, if we may judge from the constant union of these two circumstances, it would seem that a larger collection of ambergris in the belly of the whale is a product of disease, and probably sometimes the cause of its death. As soon as they harpoon a whale of this description, torpid, sickly, emaciated, or one that does not void on being harpooned, they immediately either cut up the above-mentioned protuberance, if there be any, or they rip open its bowels from the orifice of the anus, and find the ambergris sometimes in one, sometimes in several lumps, of generally from three to twelve and more inches in diameter, and from one pound to twenty or thirty pounds in weight, at the distance of two, but most frequently of about six or seven feet from the anus, and never higher up in the intestinal canal, which, according to their description, is in all probability the intestinum caecum, hitherto mistaken for a peculiar bag made by nature for the secretion and collection of this singular substance. That the part cut open to come at the ambergris is no other than the intestinal canal is certain, because they constantly begin their incision at the anus, and find the cavity everywhere filled with the faeces of the whale, which, from their colour and smell, it is impossible to mistake. The ambergris found in the intestinal canal is not so hard as that which is found on the sea or sea-coast, but soon grows hard in the air. When first taken out it has nearly the same colour, and the same disagreeable smell, though not so strong, as the more liquid faeces of the whale; but on exposing it to the air, it grows by degrees not only grayish, having its surface covered with a grayish dust like old chocolate, but it also loses its disagreeable smell, and, when kept for a certain length of time, acquires the peculiar odour which is so agreeable to most people.

In considering whether there be any material difference between the ambergris found upon the sea or sea-coast and that found in the bowels or among the faeces of the whale, Swedialur refutes the opinion that all ambergris found in whales is of an inferior quality, and therefore much lower in price. Ambergris, he observes, is only valued for its purity, lightness, compactness, colour, and smell. There are pieces of ambergris found on different coasts, which are of a very inferior quality; whereas there are often found in whales pieces of it of the first value; nay, several pieces found in the same whale, according to the above-mentioned qualities, are more or less valuable. All ambergris found in whales has at first, when taken out of the intestines, very nearly the same smell and blackish colour as the liquid excrements of that animal; sometimes it is quite hard, sometimes softish, but never so liquid as the natural faeces. By being accumulated after a certain length of time in the intestinal canal, it seems even there to become of a whiter colour, and less ponderous, and to acquire its agreeable smell. The only reason why ambergris found floating on the sea generally possesses this agreeable smell and hardness in a superior degree is because it is commonly older, and has been longer exposed to the air. It is more frequently found in males than in females: the pieces found in females are generally smaller than those found in males, and inferior in quality. The disproportionately high price obtained for the larger pieces, therefore, proceeds from an intrinsic value in respect to quality, rather than a fictitious value on account of their rarity.

From the preceding account, and his having constantly found the beaks of the sepia in all pieces of ambergris of any considerable size, Dr Swedialur concludes, with great probability, that all ambergris is generated in the bowels of the physeter macrocephalus or spermaceti whale, and there mixed with the beaks of the sepia octopodia, which is the principal food of that whale. It seems most probable that this substance is nothing more than the bile of the animal secreted in undue quantity, and altered by disease.

The opinion of Dr Swedialur with regard to the origin of ambergris has been confirmed by the information of Captain J. Coffin, master of a ship employed in the southern whale-fishery, given to a Committee of Privy Council in the year 1791. The ambergris of the whale taken by Captain Coffin was mostly sold at 19s. 9d. per ounce; and a small part of it, when it was scarce, at 25s. It was bought partly for home consumption, and partly for exportation to Turkey, Germany, and France. (Philosophical Transactions, vol. lxxxi.)

The use of ambergris in Europe is now nearly confined to perfumery, though it has formerly been recommended in medicine by several eminent physicians. In Asia and part of Africa ambergris is not only used as a medicine and a perfume, but considerable use is also made of it in cookery, by adding it to several dishes as a spice. The Turks make use of it as an aphrodisiac.

Ambergris may be known to be genuine by its fragrant scent when a hot needle is thrust into it, and its melting like fat of a uniform consistence; whereas the counterfeit will not yield such a smell, nor prove of such a fat texture.