THE ORDER CETACEA. 39 



QUANTITY OF BLOOD IN A WHALE. 



The quantity of blood which circulates in the whale 

 is much greater in proportion than that which flows in 

 the veins of quadrupeds. The diameter of the aorta, or 

 large artery arising from the heart, is sometimes more 

 than thirteen inches, and the late Mr. John Hunter 

 estimated the quantity thrown into it, at every contrac- 

 tion of the heart, to vary from ten to fifteen gallons, and 

 that with an immense velocity. The heart of the whale 

 is broad and flattened, and larger in this animal, in pro- 

 portion to their size, than in any quadruped, as also the 

 blood-vessels, and particularly the veins.* The whale 

 has a very voluminous liver, a spleen of no very great 

 extent, a pancreas or sweet-bread very long, a bladder 

 of middling size and elongated form. The stomach of 

 the whale is peculiarly conformed ; instead of four cavi- 

 ties, as in the ruminantia, there are five which are very 

 distinct and separated from each other. 



SENSE OF SMELL. 

 Whales are supposed to possess the organ of smell, 

 and Count La Cepede relates the following anecdote in 

 support of this idea. " The Vice-Admiral Pleville-le- 

 Peley, being one day at sea with his fishers, perceived 

 some whales above the horizon. He prepared to give 

 way to them, but in order to stow away the quantity of 

 cod which was in the boat, and having in the hold a 

 great quantity of stinking and putrid water, Pleville-le- 

 Peley ordered this pestiferous fluid to be flung into the 

 sea. The whales instantly made off and disappeared. 

 He tried this experiment several times, on the approach 

 of whales, but always with the same result."f From this 



* " Philosophical Transactions." vol. lxxviii. p. 414. 

 t " Histoire Naturelle des Cetacees'' par M. Le Comte La Cepede. 



