The 1818 New York court decision in Maurice vs Judd determined that whale oil was in fact fish oil…for tax purposes (all fish oil sold in New York needed to be inspected; the question was whether the requirement applied to whale oil).
Testifying (unsuccessfully) for the defendant, Samuel L. Mitchill (a former U.S. Senator, and a Professor of Natural History and Chemistry at Columbia University) stated that “as a man of science, I can say positively, that a whale is no more a fish than a man; nobody pretends to the contrary nowadays except politicians and lawyers.” He might have added authors, since in Moby Dick Herman Melville argues at length (through his narrator, “Ishmael”) that it’s perfectly appropriate to call a whale a fish. However, that book was still 30 years from being published.
For the record, defendant Judd (the whale oil merchant) requested a new trial, but a change to the law explicitly exempting whale oil from the fish oil inspection requirement implied that that whale oil was NOT exempted under the PREVIOUS law. So the judgment stood.
davidob over 2 years ago
No use blubbering about it.
rhpii over 2 years ago
Stay away from the big white whales if you know what is good for you.
ChessPirate over 2 years ago
Oil of Oy, Vey!
(¬_¬)
fritzoid Premium Member over 2 years ago
The 1818 New York court decision in Maurice vs Judd determined that whale oil was in fact fish oil…for tax purposes (all fish oil sold in New York needed to be inspected; the question was whether the requirement applied to whale oil).
Testifying (unsuccessfully) for the defendant, Samuel L. Mitchill (a former U.S. Senator, and a Professor of Natural History and Chemistry at Columbia University) stated that “as a man of science, I can say positively, that a whale is no more a fish than a man; nobody pretends to the contrary nowadays except politicians and lawyers.” He might have added authors, since in Moby Dick Herman Melville argues at length (through his narrator, “Ishmael”) that it’s perfectly appropriate to call a whale a fish. However, that book was still 30 years from being published.
For the record, defendant Judd (the whale oil merchant) requested a new trial, but a change to the law explicitly exempting whale oil from the fish oil inspection requirement implied that that whale oil was NOT exempted under the PREVIOUS law. So the judgment stood.
gopher gofer over 2 years ago
that’d probably lead to a whale of a fuss…