VOL. II.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 1^3 



lobes, as in cats ; its cavity under the bladder of gall was full of gall, shed abroad 

 in the substance of the liver, and of the neighbouring parts; which was sus- 

 pected, by the physicians administering this operation, to have been the cause of 

 this lion's death; the bladder of gall was seven inches long, and 1-^ inch wide, 

 of a peculiar structure; the spleen a foot long, 2 inches broad, and half an inch 

 thick ; the kidney weighed somewhat above 7 ounces ; the genitals of a pecu- 

 liar conformation, causing this animal to cast his urine backwards, and to cou- 

 ple like camels and hares. 



His lungs had six lobes on the right side, and three on the left; the wind- 

 pipe had its annular cartilages entire, excepting two or three; it was above four 

 inches in compass, being very firm, and by this largeness and firmness enabling 

 a lion strongly to push air enough through it for his dreadful roaring. 



His heart was dry, and without water in the pericardium, much greater in pro- 

 portion than of any other animal, being six inches long, and four inches thick 

 towards the basis, and terminating in a sharp point. It had very little flesh, 

 and was all hollow ; the ventricles very large ; the auricles very small ; the pro- 

 portion of the branches which the ascending aorta casts out was such, that the 

 carotids were as large as the left subclavian branch, and as the rest of the right 

 subclavian whence they issue, which is considerable, seeing the brain is so small ; 

 for the brain was but two inches big, the rest of the head being very fleshy, 

 and consisting of very firm bones. By comparing the little quantity of the 

 lion's brain with the plenty of that of a calf, it was judged, that the having but 

 little brain is rather a mark and a cause of a fierce and cruel temper than want 

 of wit. Which conjecture was strengthened by the observation formerly made 

 in the sea-fox, in whom almost no brain was found, though it be thought that 

 his craft and address have occasioned men to give him that name. 



IV. Historia Ambras, Authore Justo Klobio, D. in Academ. Wittebergensi. 

 This author reckons up 18 opinions concerning ambergris; and having exa- 

 mined every one of them, he embraces that which states it to be the dung of 

 a bird, called in the Madagascar tongue Aschibobuch : of which he gives the 

 description out of Odoardus Barbosa and others ; who affirm it to be of the size 

 of a goose, curiously feathered, with a large head well tufted. These birds 

 being found in great numbers in Madagascar, the Maldives, and other parts of 

 the East Indies, are affirmed by authors to flock together in great numbers, as 

 cranes ; and frequenting high cliffs near the sea side, and there voiding their 

 excrement, the sea washes it thence, if it fall not of itself into it. 



There is another opinion among the said 18, for which the author has a good 

 inclination, but yet dares not embrace it, viz. that it is the excrement of a 

 certain kind of whales. If this amber were but in those other places where 

 VOL. I. Bb 



