674 



CETACEA. 



Pkocaina globiceps, the carinated Porpoise, manner in which this organ is viewed, and we 

 the Beluga, the Platanist, the Narwhal, the consider it very probable that the number 

 Great Bottle-nose or Hyperoodon, and the stomachs in these Cetaceans, as in the others. 

 Piked Whale ( Balamoptcra) . There is no doubt is five. However, from this small number ( 

 that the stomachs of all these animals are very facts, and from all the conjectures with which 

 complicated ; and although it may be more we have been obliged to approach the subject, 

 than probable that they do not resemble each we shall draw no precise conclusion as to the 

 other in their composition, it is to be presumed, structure which may be common 

 however, that it is to their complication we must phagous Cetaceans. But this undoul 

 attribute the essentially different descriptions complication of the stomach in animals wh 

 which have been put forth on this subject, are nourished with the most ammalized food, 

 What authorizes this supposition is the di- is an anomaly the cause of which it would 

 versity of opinions which exists relative to very important to investigate; for from 

 the number of the stomachs of the common ascertained facts which we have to reason f 

 Dolphin and common Porpoise, some we are not led by any analogy to an explanat 

 counting only three, others four, others five, of this subject. 



and others six, &c. Now it is certain that [In our examinations of the stomach of 

 these differences of number proceed simply Porpesse (fig. 263), we have not been ab 

 from the manner in which this organ is viewed. p. . 



When it is only judged of by its exterior, and 

 its globulous parts alone are called stomach, 

 only three or four can be reckoned ; and then 

 the more or less tubular passages, situated 

 amongst those more or less spherical cavities, 

 are considered as mere intercommunicating 

 canals. But if the interior of these stomachs 

 be studied, it is seen that several amongst them 

 have a special organization, and are separated 

 from one another by small openings, which do 

 not invariably establish a direct communica- 

 tion between them : hence the tubular parts 

 cannot be considered as simple passages, but 

 must necessarily be admitted as essential 

 parts of the stomach, which, like the others, 

 impress their peculiar action upon, the food. 

 It has also been the case that the dilated sac 

 into which the biliary and pancreatic juices 

 are poured, has not been admitted as belong- 

 ing to the stomach ; but besides its not being 

 without example that in Mammalia the bile 

 may be poured immediately into the stomach, 

 the difference in the nature of the membranes 

 ought to suffice for deciding whether the part 

 which receives these secretions belongs or not 

 to the duodenum. Now in the Dolphins it is 

 evidently at the termination of the last stomach 

 that their duct opens. In this state of things 

 it is impossible to decide with precision in 

 what particulars the Zoophagous Cetaceans differ 

 from one another in the structure of the sto- 

 mach. It appears, however, that this organ 

 in the common Dolphin, the common Porpoise, 

 the Globiceps, and the Platanist, is formed upon 

 the same type, and is composed of five parts ; 

 and if they differ one from another, it is only 

 by modifications of secondary importance. If 

 to these facts we add what Meckel states re- 

 specting the Narwhal, in which he recognizes Stomach of the Porpesse. 

 five stomachs, and what Hunter says of the distinguish more than four compartments. 

 Grampus and Piked Whale, in which he like- This complex digestive organ, besides the 

 wise found five, we have three species more structure of the internal surface, differs from 

 to add to the first. In fact, when we consider that of the Ruminant Animals in the compara- 

 that only three or four stomachs have been re- tively small size of the first cavity, and the mode 

 cognized in the Carinated Porpesse and the of inter-communication of the other compart- 



Beluga, which are true Phocance, and that 

 Baussard saw three, and Hunter seven in the 

 Hyperoodon (Great Bottle-nose Whale), we 

 believe ourselves authorized in thinking that 



ments, which succeed one another, and are 

 not appended to the extremity of the resopha- 

 gus : instead, therefore, of the oesophagus 

 communicating with all the four cavities, 



these differences depend entirely upon the opens only into the first, and consequently no 



