THE ORDER CETACEA. 19 



The brain of a whale, nineteen feet in length, which 

 was examined by Captain Scoresby, weighed about three 

 pounds and three quarters, notwithstanding the weight 

 of the animal was near eleven thousand two hundred 

 pounds. Here the weight of the brain was about the 

 four thousandth part of that of the entire body;* whilst 

 that of the brain of an adult man is about four pounds ;+ 

 and, compared with that of the body, the brain forms 

 about the thirty -third part of the weight of the whole 

 frame. 



Whales are viviparous, having but one young, and 

 suckling it with teats, as in the other mammalia. These 

 organs are situated upon the abdomen ; one on each 

 side of the pudenda, near the vagina, and one about two 

 feet apart: they appear not capable of protrusion beyond 

 the length of a few inches. In the dead animal they 

 are always found retracted. 



The connubial intercourse of these animals is gene- 



peculiarities, the external orifice being nothing more than a very narrow- 

 cartilaginous tube proceeding from the cavity of the tympanum, winding 

 through a bed of fat, opening externally by a little hole, which to the 

 eye is hardly perceptible, terminated by scarcely the vestige of a conch. 

 This canal pierces the upper maxillary or jaw-bone, and terminates 

 above the spiracle in an orifice, rendered by means of a small valve 

 impenetrable to water. 



The internal ear is composed of a labyrinth, a cochlea, cochlearian 

 orifice, three semi-circular canals, a vestibulum and its orifice, and a 

 tympanum and its membrane ; also articulated osselets placed within 

 the tympanum from its membrane to the vestibulary orifice, an eustachian 

 tube, and a canal leading from the membrane of the tympanum, open- 

 ing to the small external orifice already mentioned. — Cuvier. " Regne 

 Animal," vol. iv. p. 414. — See also John Hunter's " Remarks on the 

 Structure and (Economy of Whales." 



* Blumenbach's " Manual of Comp. Anatomy," translated by Law- 

 rence and Coulson. — Edit. 1827, p. 213. 



t Dewhurst's " Dissertation on the Component Parts of an Animal 

 Body," page 57, 3d edition. 



C 2 



