“Pan Dulce” Spanish translations is “Sweet Bread” This is a Mexican style bread with a wide variety of styles. Nihilne te nocturnum praesidium Palati, nihil urbis vigiliae. Non equidem invideo, miror magis posuere velit aliquet. Qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli appellantur. Prima luce, cum quibus mons aliud consensu ab eo. Petierunt uti sibi concilium […]
But the placing of the cap-sheaf to all this blundering business was reserved for the scientific Frederick Cuvier, brother to the famous Baron. In 1836, he published a Natural History of Whales, in which he gives what he calls a picture of the Sperm Whale.
Before showing that picture to any Nantucketer, you had best provide for your summary retreat from Nantucket. In a word, Frederick Cuvier’s Sperm Whale is not a Sperm Whale, but a squash. Of course, he never had the benefit of a whaling voyage (such men seldom have), but whence he derived that picture, who can tell? Perhaps he got it as his scientific predecessor in the same field, Desmarest, got one of his authentic abortions; that is, from a Chinese drawing. And what sort of lively lads with the pencil those Chinese are, many queer cups and saucers inform us.
