CESTUM. 



CETACEA. 



870 



CESTUM. [ACALEPH.E.] 



CETACEA, an order of Aquatic Mammals with fin-like anterior 

 extremities, the posterior extremities being absent, or rather, having 

 their place supplied by a large horizontal caudal fin or tail ; without 

 an external ear, without hair on their external integument, and the 

 cervical bones so compressed as to leave the animal without any 

 outward appearance of a neck. This order comprises the Whales, 

 the largest animated forms in existence. Some of the genera com- 

 posing it are phytophagous, or plant-eaters ; others are zoophagous, 

 or animal-eaters. 



The Cetaceous Mammals, whose abode is either in the sea or the 

 great rivers, resemble Fishes so closely in external appearance, that 

 it is hardly to be wondered at that not only the vulgar, but even 

 some of the earlier zoologists, looked upon them as belonging to that 

 class. This notion is kept alive to the present day in the announce- 

 ments of the comparative success of those ships which are employed 

 in the Whale Fishery ; for not only is it conveyed by that general 

 term for the capture of whales, but by statements that one ship has 

 arrived with three fish, another with four fish, a third with one 

 fish, &c. 



If we turn to the Sacred Scriptures we find the Hebrew words Than 

 and Thannin, which have been translated by the words Kfj-ros (the 

 word used by ^Eneas Gazaeus to designate the fish out of whose belly 

 Hercules is said to have escaped after having been swallowed) and 

 ' whale.' Lycophron terms the marine animal that so disposed of 

 Hercules when he was shipwrecked, Kiipxapos ximv, a shark. 



The Septuagiut translates th Hebrew words above noticed, ra /rfrrj; 

 ra niya\a, in the 21st verse of the first chapter of Genesis. The 

 same Greek word is used in the 17th verse of the first chapter of 

 Jonah. In the book of Job (vii. 12), and in that of Ezekiel (xxxii. 2), 

 the translation uses the term Ip&Kur. In Matthew (xii. 40), where 

 the swallowing up of Jonah is alluded to, /cfjroi is employed. 



In Barker's 'Bible' (1615) the passage in Genesis is translated, 

 " Then God created the great whales," much the same as it stands 

 in the version now read in our churches, " And God created great 

 whales." 



The other passages are translated in Barker's ' Bible" as follows : 

 Jonah (i. 17), "Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow 

 up Jonah : and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and 

 three nights : " Job (vii. 12), " Am I a sea or a whale fish, that thou 

 keepest me in ward?" Ezekiel (xxxii. 2), " Thou art like a lyon of 

 the nations, and art as a dragon in the sea ; " in a note ' or whale ' is 

 added : Matthew (xii 40), " For as Jonaa was three days and three 

 nights in the whale's belly," &c. 



In the version now used in our churches the passage in Jonah is 

 verbatim the same as in Barker ; that in Job is thus rendered, " Am 

 I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me ? " that in 

 Ezekiel, " Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as a 

 whale in the seas : " that in Matthew is identical with the- passage 

 in Barker. 



These are merely cited as examples : there are other passages in 

 the Old Testament in which the words whale and icriros occur in the 

 English and Greek versions. It would be beside the present question 

 to enter into the discussion whether the whale was meant, or a 

 crocodile, as some will have it, in the verses above quoted ; it is 

 sufficient for our purpose to show the commonly received opinion 

 that a whale was a fish. 



In the Index to Pliny's ' Natural History ' we find the Whales 

 treated as Fishes, "Bahenarum Piscium Consideratio," "Balaena 

 piscis," &c. ; but in the work itself the Baleena and Physeter are noticed 

 as Sel,it(e, and a fair account is given of their spouting and general 

 habits. The 7th chapter of his ninth book, indeed, is headed " An 

 spirent pisces, an dormiant;" but in that chapter he expressly states 

 that neither whales nor dolphins (balacnis nee delphinis) have gills, 

 but breathe by means of fistula!, or blow-holes, which appertain to 

 the lungs. 



Aristotle, whose great zoological work Pliny had closely studied, 

 was certainly aware of the broad distinction between the Whales and 

 Dolphins (the position of whose blow-holes he mentions), and Fishes. 



Gesner separated the Whales from the Fishes, including them in a 

 distinct order of marine animals. Aldrovandi separated them also, 

 though they appear in the same volume, the title of which is ' De 

 Piscibus Libri V. : De Cetis Liber Unus.' Johnston gives them a 

 separate chapter at the head of his book ' De Piscibus.' 



Ray, in his 'Synopsis Methodica Piscium' (1713), observes that 

 the term ' fish ' U extended, even by the learned of our country, to 

 the bloodless aquatics, as they were then termed, Rcanguia aqiiatica, 

 such as Cruttacea, Tettacea, and Mollia., or Shellless Mollusks. On 

 the other hand, some, he remarks, not only exclude those Exanguia 

 aquatica, but also the Cetacea ("Cetaceum genus, 'seu Belluje 

 Marinas "), contending that no other animals can justly be termed 

 fishes except those which breathe by means of gills, and have but 

 one ventricle to the heart. With these last Ray agrees, and expresses 

 hifl own opinion, that, if we speak properly and philosophically, the 

 name of Fish should be restricted to such last-mentioned animals only, 

 and points out the absence of any relationship of the " Pisces Cetacei 

 dicti " with the true fishes ; adding, that with the exception of the 

 place where they spend their lives, the external figure of their body, 



their hairless skin, and their natatory progression, the Cetacea have 

 hardly anything in common with the true fishes, but in other respects 

 agree with the viviparous quadrupeds. 



Nevertheless, that he may avoid dissent from received opinions 

 and the appearance of paradox, Ray declares that he will not inno- 

 vate, but consider the Cetaceous Animals as Fishes ; and he proceeds 

 to define what a fish is, thus : An aquatic animal having blood, wanting 

 feet, swimming with fins, covered either with scales or with a naked, 

 smooth, hairless skin, passing its life in the waters, and never 

 voluntarily leaving it for the dry land. 



The Cetaceous Fishes, or Belluce Marina, form his first section, 

 and are immediately followed by the Cartilaginous Fishes, called 

 2eAaxi by Aristotle. Of the Cetaceans he says, that they breathe, 

 like quadrupeds, by means of lungs, copulate, bring forth their young 

 alive, and nourish them with their milk, and in the structure and use 

 of all their internal parts agree with those animals. 



The following are the genera enumerated by Ray : 



Baleena (2 species) ; Cete (1) ; Oreo, (2, but one not clearly defined) ; 

 Allius ; Monoceros ; DdjMnus ; Phocama. And he divides the Cetacei 

 generis Placet, seu Balcence, into two great groups the Toothed and 

 Toothless ; the latter having horny laminae in the upper jaw. 



The Toothed Whales are subdivided into those which have teeth in 

 both jaws, and those which have teeth in the lower jaw ; and there 

 are further subdivisions depending on the absence or presence of the 

 back-fin and the shape of the teeth. 



The Toothless or Whalebone Whales are subdivided also with . 

 reference to the absence or presence of the back-fin, the presence of 

 a blow-hole, or the employment of nostrils in respiration, the presence 

 of plaits on the belly, and the width of the lower jaw. 



Linnaeus, in his last edition of the ' Systema Naturae' (1766), defines 

 the fulcra, or props, of his Mammalia to be 4 feet, with the exception 

 of those Mammals which are merely aquatic, "in quibus pedes 

 posteriores in caud4 pinnam compedes ; " in other words, in which 

 the posterior limbs are manacled or conjoined, so as to form a 

 tail-nn. 



The seven orders of Mammalia, in this system are divided into 

 three sections: 1, Unguiculata ; 2, Ungulata ; 3, Mnlica. The 

 seventh and last order, Cete, is the only one belonging to the section 

 Mutica. 



The following is the Linnacan definition of the last-named order : 



Pectoral fins in lieu of feet, and feet conjoined into a horizontal 

 flattened fin in lieu of a tail. No claws. Teeth cartilaginous. Nose 

 often a frontal pipe. Food, mollusks, fishes. Locality, the ocean. 



Linnaeus then declares that he has separated these Cetaceans from 

 the Fishes, and associated them with the Mammals, on account of 

 their warm bilocular heart, their lungs, their moveable eyelids, their 

 hollow ears, " penem intrantem feminam mammis lactantem," and 

 this, to use his own expressive words, "ex lege naturie jure meri- 

 toque." 



Here then we find the decisive step taken, with the unflinching 

 firmness of a master mind, relying upon the philosophical principles 

 that demanded the separation, and no longer yielding to popular 

 prejudice by calling that a fish which he knew to be a mammiferous 

 animal. Some parts of his definition not much of it may be open 

 to criticism, as where he designates the teeth as cartilaginous, a term 

 probably used to comprehend both the horny lamina; of the Whale- 

 bone Whales and the true teeth of the other Cetaceans ; but the broad 

 line of distinction is unassailable, and will ever remain so. 



The order Cete is thus summarily defined by its great founder : 

 Spiracles upon the head. Pectoral fins and horizontal caudal fin 

 without claws. 



Genera : Afonodon, Baleena, Physeter, Delphinus. 



This, the laat order of the Linnaean Mammalia, is immediately 

 preceded by the Belluce. 



For Lacdpede's arrangement, see his ' Histoire Naturelle, &c. 

 Dee Ce'taces,' 4to., Paris, 1804. 



The C<Stac(Ss form Cuvier's ninth and last order of Mammiferes, 

 the Ruminants (Pecora, Linn.) being the eighth. 



Cuvier defines the Cetaceans to be mammiferous animals without 

 posterior feet. Then: trunk, he states, continues itself with a thick 

 tail, which a cartilaginous horizontal fin terminates ; and their head is 

 joined to the trunk by a neck so short and thick that no narrowing 

 or constriction of the part is perceptible, and composed of cervical 

 vertebrae, which are very delicate, and in part conjoined or soldered 

 together. Their anterior extremities have the first bones shortened, 

 and the succeeding bones flattened and enveloped in a tendinous 

 membrane, which reduces them to true fins. This gives nearly 

 entirely the external form of the fishes, except that these last have 

 the tail-fin vertical. The Cetaceans therefore remain constantly in 

 the water ; but as they respire by means of lungs, they are obliged to 

 come frequently to the surface for air. Their warm blood their 

 ears open externally, although with very small apertures their vivi- 

 parous generation, the teats by means of which they suckle their 

 young, and all the details of their anatomy, sufficiently distinguish 

 them, Cuvier observes, from the fishes. 



The same great zoologist remarks that their brain is large, and its 

 hemispheres well developed ; the petrous bone, or that portion of the 

 cranium which contains the internal ear, is separated from the rest of 



