CETACEA. 



785 



gestation in the female, and the conjectures which 

 have been advanced on the subject are so palpably 

 absurd and contradictory, as not to be worthy of any 

 attention. The milk of the females is wholesome, 

 and peculiarly rich, resembling, both in taste and 

 consistency, cream rather than milk ; and, strange as 

 it may seem, it is by no means improbable that a 

 dairy of tame whales would be an important addition 

 to domestic economy, although the food and manner 

 of feeding in the common whales, which are certainly 

 the most gentle and docile of the order, would render 

 it a very difficult matter to keep them on any part of 

 our shores. 



The young are, generally speaking, only one at a 

 birth, though there are two in some instances. It is 

 said that the female goes ten months, but the fact is 

 not established upon any satisfactory evidence. 

 Little is known of the length of their lives ; but if we 

 may judge from the analogy of land animals, which 

 are generally, though not invariably, long-lived in 

 proportion to their size, we might perhaps assign to 

 the larger w-hales a duration of at least a thousand 

 years. There seems to be little doubt that, in their 

 growth, they agree with fishes rather than with, at 

 least the majority of, terrestrial mammalia. They 

 continue growing, not in the flesh only, but in the 

 skeleton. This is in so far at least the case with the 

 boas, and with some other genera of land animals ; and 

 it seems that, in all cases when this fact is well esta- 

 blished, the animals are remarkable for length of life. 

 All statements which are made, or indeed can be 

 made on this part of the subject, are, however, in a 

 great measure, conjectural, though it is well ascer- 

 tained that they are, the common whale especially, 

 very slowly-breeding animals, and have been very 

 much thinned by the assiduity with which the fishing 

 in the north seas has been carried on. More atten- 

 tion than it has hitherto received is worthy of being 

 paid, and necessary to be paid to the growth of the 

 bones of animals, as connected with the duration of 

 their lives ; and when this highly important subject 

 has been investigated with the attention which it 

 merits, it will in all probability be found that the bones 

 of animals are the parts which first die, and which 

 thus bring about the mortality of the whole; and 

 that, from the time that new matter ceases to be 

 added to the bones, not merely in the repair of them, 

 or in the replacement of those parts which have be- 

 come unfit for use, but in the enlargement of their 

 structures, the decay of the animal may be dated. 

 We know that all the soft parts are frequently re- 

 placed ; and that there appears to be a power of 

 replacing them, even to the latest period of the life 

 of the animal ; but in all the shorter lived species, 

 including man in the number, the bones cease to grow 

 at a comparatively early period. After age and de- 

 crepitude come on, there is a wasting of the bones, 

 a taking up of their earthy parts, or salts of lime, by 

 the absorbent system ; and this is often done to an 

 unnatural extent, so that the matter taken up in this 

 way loads the circulation of the blood, and is thrown 

 upon the coats of the vessels in those accumulations, 

 to which, in common language, we give the name of 

 ossifications, or conversions into bone. 



It does not appear from the information that we 

 have on the subject, which it must be allowed is very 

 scanty, that the animals whose bones continue to 

 grow are subject to these casualties, or that they ever 

 fall into decrepitude. In toothed animals there is, 



NAT. HIST. VOL. I. 



indeed, a boundary set by the decay of the teeth, 

 though in some instances, even in man, these are re- 

 produced in the extreme old age of the individual ; 

 and the author of this article once knew a very old 

 man, who got a new set of teeth when he was between 

 eighty and ninety years of age, and about the same 

 time recovered the sense of sight which, for several 

 years previous, had been very dim and weak. 



But in cases where the bones do not decay, but 

 continue to grow, as they do in the greater number 

 at least in the cetacea, it is not very easy to see what 

 part of the animal can decay ; and if the system goes 

 on assimilating all the substance which is necessary, 

 not only for the repair, but for the growth of the 

 several parts, it is not easy to see how it can cease 

 to live in consequence of any other than a violent 

 death. That the cetacea partake of this durable 

 character to a very considerable extent is certain ; 

 but how far they possess it has not been ascertained 

 with any thing like certainty. It is, however, a sub- 

 ject which is well worthy of the most minute and 

 careful examination, not only on account of the in- 

 terest and value of the animals themselves, but as one 

 of the most interesting points in the whole economy 

 of animated nature. 



This order of animals has been variously sub- 

 divided and arranged by different naturalists. Lin- 

 naeus made only four genera : Bal&na, or whale-bone 

 whales ; Pkyseter, or spermaceti whales ; Dolphinus 

 or dolphins, and Monodon, or narwhals.. La Cepede, 

 on the other hand, makes ten genera, and, besides, 

 he has augmented the number of species apparently 

 much beyond the truth, by introducing many which 

 are only varieties, if they are even entitled to that 

 character. The animals, of which it is probable that 

 the bones continue growing for a long and indefinite 

 period, size cannot be admitted as a ground of dis- 

 tinction ; and colour conspicuous in all cases can- 

 not, from what has been already hinted at, be very 

 readily admitted as a specific character in these 

 animals. We shall, therefore, take an intermediate 

 ground of distinction, that of the character of the 

 teeth. l - 



Viewing them in this light, there are four divisions 

 or sub-orders: 1, Edentate, or toothless whales; 

 2, Pr<zdentat<B, or those with teeth in the anterior part 

 of the upper jaw only ; 3, Sttbdentate, or those with 

 teeth in the lower jaw only ; and, 4, Ambidentate, or 

 those with teeth in both jaws. To these may be 

 added, perhaps as a separate sub-order or group, those 

 cetaceous animals which are understood to subsist 

 chiefly, or wholly, upon vegetable food, and which are 

 chiefly, though not exclusively, found in the rivers of 

 the warmer parts of the world. 



I. Toothless whales. These consist of the common 

 whales, baksnce, which have no dorsal fins, and the 

 " finners," baleenoptera, which have one ; and some 

 account of them is given in the article BAUENA, so 

 that we have now only to notice the other divisions 

 of the order, to which the remainder of this article 

 will be devoted. See cut on next page. 



II. With teeth in the fore part of the upper jaw only. 

 These are known by the general name of narwhals; 

 and their most remarkable external character is that 

 of having one, or sometimes rudimentally two, large 

 teeth projecting from the snout. They are, on this 

 account, sometimes called sea unicorns. 



These animals have only a single opening for tho 

 blow-holes, which is situated far back on the nape of 

 3 L 



