Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 199 



The author then proceeded to consider, at some length, a question 

 which has lately arisen relative to the structure and functions of the 

 abdominal glands of the Cetaceae, and which has been six or seven 

 times before the French Institute in the course of the late and pre- 

 sent session, — viz. Whether these glands are mammiferous? IM- St 

 Hilaire conceives that they are not mammae, and do not secrete milk, 

 but that they are probably similar to thoie of the Onntliorynchus 

 paradoxus, which he thinks are sexual, specific, and odoriferous, but 

 not mammiferous. 



The author first observed, that the question ought, in strictness, to 

 be limited to the Whalebone Whales among the Cetacea ; because 

 the great group of the Delphinus was proved to be mammiferous long 

 ago by Air Watson, an extract of whose observations is given in 

 " Scoresby's Greenland." He next stated, that his own observations 

 left, in his opinion, no doubt whatsoever, that the similarly situated 

 glands in the Baloena rostrata are also true mammae. An elaborate 

 anatomical examination shewed that they resembled the lactiferous 

 glands of other mammalia in their structure. A cursory examination 

 of the fcetal Mt/slicetus, led to the same conclusion in regard to that 

 genus ; and the author was farther informed by a former pupil, IMr 

 Auld, that in the young Mysticetus harpooned, he had seen a fluid 

 of a cream colour and consistence, and oleaginous taste and smell, 

 issue abundantly from the mouth ; and, in the full-grown females, 

 he had forced out several pounds of a similar fluid from the orifices 

 of the glands by pressure of the foot on the abdomen. 



The specimen of Balsena rostrata examined by the author was 

 9 feet 11 inches in length, 3 feet from snout to ear, and 4 feet 8 

 inches in girth at the termination of the plicae and folds. 



Proceedings of the Wernerian Natural History Society. 



1834, Jan. 18. — Professor Robert Graham, formerly V. P. 

 in the chair. — Dr Traill read the description of a specimen of 

 Squalus cornubicus, captured near Kirkwall, and also an account 

 of the different species of Shark which occur in the Orkney seas. 

 He at the same time exhibited to the meeting a specimen of 

 the angel-fish [Squalus Sguatina), which he had procured du- 

 ring a visit to the Orkneys. 



The Secretary read a notice regarding the growth of a large 

 herbaceous plant, apparently Senecio jacoboea, through a very 

 small orifice in a leaden water-pipe, which had become com- 

 pletely choked up with the fibrous roots ; communicated in a 

 letter from J. W. Riddoch, Esq. Falkirk. 



Professor Jameson then laid before the meeting an analysis, 

 by Mr Walker, of the substance of the fossil tree found in 

 the strata of Craigleith Quarry ; shewing, that besides lime 

 and alumina, and a comparatively small amount of silica, it con- 

 tains a considerable proportion of carbonate of magnesia, the last 



