Science.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1682, 12 April 1890, Page 4 (Supplement)

Science.

Amber and Ambergris. Amberigris, which is used as % basis for nearly all standard perfumery, was first found tn unattractive mass floating on the surface ot the sea 02 lodged upon the shore. How So unlikely a substance ever suggested iteeti as a perfume is unknown, but it has been in use for centuries, and it is only in comparatively recent times that its origin has become known. It is nothing more than the morbid secretion of the liver of a Biok spermaceti whale. It is described as a fatty, waxy substance, disagreeable to sight or touch, but e van in its orude state exhaling a pleasant odor. The orude substance is subjected to chemical action to extract the active principle, called arnberine. It was recently reported that a fisherman pioked up a mass of the substance which nearly filled a barrel and is worth £5030. This is probably an exaggeration, both as to size and pries, for the largest piece on record was found on the Windward Islands, weighing 130 pounds. This was sold for about £500. Amber was also first found on the shores of the sea after severe Biorms. For a time its origin was unknown, bat it was early put to use and regarded with a Bnperstitious awe by the anoienfc Greeks and Romans, its peculiar electrical qualities being noted by them. It is now thought to be the gum of forest trees, which periahod agea and ages ago, the lands apon which they flourished having become the ocean's bed. Amber has no fixed value, the price being regulated wholly by siza, quality, and other considerations. Drops of amber in which are embedded insects of those ancient times command f ancy priaes, while the more common kiacis are used for making a certain kind ot varnish and even in medicine. The world's Eupply of the two, amber and ambergris, does not wholly depend en what may be accidentally found. Dredging for amber is now systematically carried on by regularly organised companies, and all spermaceti whales killed by whalemen are subjected to j r pretty thorough post-mortem examination, the fiud of amb'argri3 in the nionstor's interior being often vastly more valuable than the oil extracted from his blubber overcoat.