Zoe
May 8, 2003, 10:41am
21
Ambergris is still used in perfumes. Where do they get it now? Is it synthetic or do they still harvest it from the sea?
jovan
May 8, 2003, 11:33am
22
You can buy natural ambergris online.
It goes for 10$ per gram.
And yet more info, from here:
AMBERGRIS is a pathological exudate from the Sperm Whale Physeter macrocephalus, which is acted on by sunlight and seawater to produce this formerly used perfumery material. Many correspondents to this website have problems with this, as they point out that ambergris masses may be found floating in the sea or washed up on shores, harvesting therefore posing no threat to whale viability. Rice D.W. (2002) of the National Maritime Mammal Laboratory, Seattle, points out however, that contrary to the widely held belief, ambergris is hardly ever found on beaches but is mainly recovered from whale carcasses Hopefully this will convince those with contrary opinions to think again (ambergris occurs in approx. 1% of all Sperm Wales).
Embra
May 8, 2003, 11:50am
23
Spremaceti non-sexual you all say? Hah! Good old Moby Dick
Squeeze! squeeze! squeeze! all the morning long; I squeezed that sperm till I myself almost melted into it; I squeezed that sperm till a strange sort of insanity came over me; and I found myself unwittingly squeezing my co-laborers’ hands in it, mistaking their hands for the gentle globules. Such an abounding, affectionate, friendly, loving feeling did this avocation beget; that at last I was continually squeezing their hands, and looking up into their eyes sentimentally; as much as to say, - Oh! my dear fellow beings, why should we longer cherish any social acerbities, or know the slightest ill-humor or envy! Come; let us squeeze hands all round; nay, let us all squeeze ourselves into each other; let us squeeze ourselves universally into the very milk and sperm of kindness.
Or should I be locked up?
Embra
I’ve read that Ambergris still washes ashore at Amergris Caye in Belize, but not as often as it used to.
Oh, yeah??? Gotta cite???
I’m not disagreeing with the plausibility, but at least I provided a cite that supported one opinion.
Just to back up Earl here, the etymological entry for spermaceti in the OED:
There’s always shiitake mushrooms.
raises hand
…who exactly went on such an extensive search for something to improve perfume that they searched the earth so thoroughly, that the ended up in a whale’s ass?
Therefore proving once and for all exactly why the ancient species of Jewish Whales died out… nobody wanted them. ;j
