SOME ASPECTS OF RESPIRATION IN BLUE 



AND FIN WHALES 



By Alec H. Laurie, m.a. 

 (Plate XV; text-figs. 1-4) 



INTRODUCTION 



THE investigations which form the subject of this report were performed in two parts. 

 Preliminary examination of the general physiological background of cetacean life 

 was made at the Marine Biological Station in South Georgia in 1 930-1. Part of the 

 ensuing year was spent in studying problems of respiration and gaining experience in 

 the technique of blood gas work at Cambridge under the guidance of Professor Barcroft, 

 to whom I am much indebted for advice and laboratory facilities. Field work was 

 resumed in the season 1932-3, when The Southern Whaling and Sealing Company 

 very kindly placed a laboratory at my disposal on board the pelagic whaler 

 ' Southern Princess '. The freshness of whales brought in to a pelagic whaler outweighs 

 the inconveniences of a floating laboratory, since it is important to examine post-mortem 

 material with a minimum of delay. 



Some qualification is necessary for the title of this paper. The physiological properties 

 of living southern Blue and Fin whales will in all probability never be known by direct 

 observation, though the smaller whales and porpoises might conceivably be confined 

 and observed. An attempt has been made in the present work to examine the properties 

 of fresh carcasses of Blue and Fin whales from which tentative deductions as to their 

 mode of life have been made. It is felt that such an investigation, which would be 

 superfluous with smaller land mammals, has its justification in that it may help to throw 

 light on the life of one of the world's most inaccessible creatures. 



At the suggestion of Professor Barcroft the manuscript of this paper was submitted 

 to Professor August Krogh of Copenhagen. Professor Krogh is renowned for his re- 

 searches into problems of respiration and blood gases, and I am very grateful to him for 

 a number of criticisms which I have incorporated in the text. 



I wish also to thank Professor Barcroft, Dr F. J. W. Roughton, Mr G. S. Adair, 

 Professor D. Keilin, and Mr D. Ward Cutler for the interest they have taken in this 

 work and for the useful suggestions and criticisms they have offered. 



SOUTHERN WHALES AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT 



It will be convenient to review briefly the external conditions of a Blue or Fin whale's 

 life, and later to see how much of its mode of living can be deduced from the applica- 

 tion of physiological principles. Blue and Fin whales are very large, entirely aquatic 

 mammals, preferring for the most part to live on the high seas and seldom venturing 



