A close finish in the Wah Yan College Sports.
THE CHINA MAIL FRIDAY SUPPLEMENTS APRIL 1
("Mai" photo).
The "Mail" photographer snapped this picture at the Annual Meeting of the Salvation Army Home
CARGOT
1938 MODEL
NEW SHIPMENT
JUST ARRIVED.
FOR DEMONSTRATION & PARTICULARS APPLY TO-
SOUTHERN MOTORS
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AMBERGRIS FROM WHALES, WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD
(By Roy Chapman Andrews) MONCEIVED in the alimentary
canal of a whale and even- tally ending as a necessary in- gredient of the very finest and most expensive perfumes-that's am- bergris.
From time immemorial bergris has had a fabulous value. Ages before its true source even remotely suspected it was component of mediums and love potions. It is even mentioned in some of the tales of the Arabian Nights.
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Probably not until the middle of the seventeenth century was real origin, suspected Even to- day we don't know much about why and how it is formed.
It is found either floating 00 the sea or in the bodies of sick sperm whales, and is supposed to be a secretion of the liver or in- testines. Sperm whales feed al- most exclusively upon squids or cuttlefish. Their beaks and
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of the internal shells are of
found in ambergris. It has been supposed, therefore, that these hard substances irritate the in- testinal wells and that ambergris is formed somewhat like a scab on & sore..
But the most characteristic con- stituent of ambergris is a peculiar fat-like substance called ambrain, which is closely akin to choles terim Cholesterin is formed in bile, the secretion of the gall bladder, and it may be that am- bergris is something like gall- stones.
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Anyway, it appears as a gray or black waxy substance having an odor suggestive of musk or benzoin. The odor is subtly pleasing, but perfumers believe that ambergris also acts as 2 fixative that is, it endows the blossom odors with greater per- manence. Strangely enough, 10- dern chemistry has yet to devise a synthetic ambergris or a really efficient substitute.
Whaling literature is full of yarns about great hauls of 2011- bergris. One record is of a lump weighing 750 pounds taken from a single whale. Rarely it is found floating, presumably having been discharged by a sick whale.
In the last thirty years many substances have been brought to me for identification, with the hope that they would prove to be ambergris. Most of them were ordinary soap. No one has vet brought me a bit of real bergris.
CLOSE-UPS
271-
Close-ups of the stars: Joan Crawford is very careful of her figure, and often has nothing all day but a glass of buttermilk Fred Astaire takes off his shoes soon as he gets home. Gail Patrick has a wedding ring an inch wide... Rudy Vallee is addicted to patent medicines
William -has
Warren
shave twice
working** A1 Jolson hates draughts, and stuffs up window cracks and doors with paper .. Humphrey Bogart is a student of Shakespeare. Fay Wray has the English habit of drink- ing tea each day at 4 p.m. Harold Lloyd spends most of his spare time with model elec- tric trains.. George Raft has kis shoes made to order, and they cost $11 a pair.