ANATOMY OF MEGAPTERA LONGIMANA. 3 



The carcase was removed the same night to Dundee, tugged 

 by a rope attached to the tail. 1 



2. DISSECTION OF THE CARCASE. After it had lain a fort- 

 night for exhibition, I was allowed to make a dissection of the 

 carcase, in which I was assisted by Mr Robert Gibb and Mr 

 George Sim, of Aberdeen, and by several Dundee whale-fishers. 2 

 The carcase having been turned on the back, my first care 

 was to remove a large portion of the abdominal wall, in its 

 whole thickness, from the umbilicus to behind the anus, and of 

 sufficient breadth to include the pelvic bones and rudimentary 

 hind limbs. This half-putrid mass was pickled and sent on to 

 Aberdeen to be dissected at leisure. On looking for the viscera 

 they were found to be so decomposed as to be mostly unrecog- 

 nisable, reduced along with the muscles to a pulp into which the 

 whale-fishers went knee-deep. We tried to preserve the heart, 

 but our hands went through it. Our attention was therefore 

 directed to securing the bones, some of which came out already 

 detached from the soft parts. The vertebrae, except those of the 

 narrow part next the tail-fin, the sternum, ribs, and hyoid, were 

 removed, and sent on to my macerating troughs at Aberdeen. 3 



On August 7, fully seven months after the death of the 

 whale, I went to Dundee to complete the removal of the bones, 



1 When lifted out of the water in Dundee harbour with the steam crane, by 

 a chain round the tail, high in the air, the tongue and some other soft parts, and 

 the cervical vertebrae, fell out by the mouth into the water. The vertebrae were 

 recovered. It was then placed on the belly on railway lorries, and dragged by 

 eighteen powerful horses along the docks, and, after various mishaps, reached 

 Mr "Woods' yard, where it was placed for exhibition. 



2 I may here remark, in apology for delays and shortcomings in my observa- 

 tions of the external characters and internal structure of this Megaptera, that 

 everything had to be subordinated to its exhibition at Dundee and then at 

 other towns. The dissection was not only late (January 25 and 26), but was 

 attended by difficulties and by unusual accompaniments. When we arrived to 

 perform it, we found that the astute proprietor had announced a special admission, 

 adding the attraction of a band of music, and I may add we had a snow-storm 

 which drove us off from time to time. 



3 The remains were then prepared for exhibition by the proprietor, Mr Woods. 

 The putrid soft parts having been scooped out, and the remaining soft parts 

 prepared with antiseptics, a wooden backbone was introduced, wooden bars 

 supplied the place of ribs, and the body was stuffed and stitched below into 

 proper form. The embalmed whale, thus wonderfully restored in form and 

 much lightened, was exhibited during the next few months in various towns, 

 first in Aberdeen, then in Glasgow, Liverpool, and Manchester, again in Glas- 

 gow, in Edinburgh, and finally again in Dundee. 



