27 



rhynchus and Echidna, as having a function similar to that which he has 

 attributed to these latter : he assumes that the fluid secreted by thetn 

 is uot milk but mucus, and that this mucus is not sucked by the 

 young, (whose organs of deglutition he describes as being unfitted 

 for sucking,) but is ejected by the niother into the vvater, the element 

 in which they dvvell, vvheie, by imbibition of a portion of the vvater, 

 it becomes thickened, and, floating by the mother's side, is devoured 

 by the progeny, 



M. Geoffroy has subseąuently changed his opinion as to the na- 

 ture of the fluid secreted by the nutrient glands of the Cetacea. He 

 had had an opportunity of examining these glands in some Porpoises, 

 and had found the secretion to be actually milk. He still, hovvever, 

 maintains that the young of the Cetacea do nol suck, but that the 

 mother ejects the nutritious fluid from the milk receptacle into the 

 mouth of her young. 



