All his peculiarities will, in many other places, be enlarged upon.
It is chiefly with his name that I now have to do.
Philologically considered, it is absurd. Some centuries ago,
when the Sperm whale was almost wholly unknown in his own
proper individuality, and when his oil was only accidentally
obtained from the stranded fish; in those days spermaceti,
it would seem, was popularly supposed to be derived from
a creature identical with the one then known in England as
the Greenland or Right Whale. It was the idea also, that this
same spermaceti was that quickening humor of the Greenland Whale
which the first syllable of the word literally expresses.
In those times, also, spermaceti was exceedingly scarce,
not being used for light, but only as an ointment and medicament.
It was only to be had from the druggists as you nowadays buy
an ounce of rhubarb. When, as I opine, in the course of time,
the true nature of spermaceti became known, its original name
was still retained by the dealers; no doubt to enhance its
value by a notion so strangely significant of its scarcity.
And so the appellation must at last have come to be bestowed
upon the whale from which this spermaceti was really derived.
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