The cetology in Herman Melville's 1851 novel, Moby-Dick, is a running theme that appears most importantly in Ishmael's zoological classification of whales, in Chapter 32, "Cetology". The purpose of that chapter, the narrator says, is "to attend to a matter almost indispensable to a thorough appreciative understanding of the more special leviathanic revelations and allusions of all sorts which are to follow." Further descriptions of whales and their anatomy occur in seventeen other chapters, including "The Sperm Whale's Head -- Contrasted View" (Chapter 74) and "The Right Whale's Head -- Contrasted View" (Chapter 75).[1]
Although writing a work of fiction, Melville included extensive material that presents the properties of whales in a seemingly scientific form. Many of the observations are taken from Melville's reading in whaling sources in addition to his own experiences in whaling in the 1840s.[2] They include descriptions of a range of species in the order of Cetacea. The detailed descriptions are a digression from the story-line, but critics argue that their objectivity and encyclopedic form balance the spiritual elements of the novel and ground its cosmic speculations. These chapters, however, are the most likely to be omitted in abridged versions.