VOL. LXXVII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TBANSACTIONS. SSQ 



In the spermaceti whale the tongue was almost like a feather-bed. In the 

 piked whale it was but gently raised, hardly having any lateral edges, and its tip 

 projecting but little, yet, like every other tongue, composed of muscle and fat. 

 The extent between the 2 jaw bones in this whale was very considerable, taking 

 in the whole width of the head or upper jaw, and of course including the whale- 

 bone. This extent of surface, between jaw and jaw, having but little projection 

 of tongue, is almost flat from side to side, is extremely elastic when contracted, 

 and throws the inner membrane into a vast number of very small folds, that run 

 parallel to one another, but which are again thrown into a close serpentine course 

 by the elasticity of the part in a contrary direction. From the tongue being ca- 

 pable of but little motion, there is only a small mass of muscle required; and 

 from the thinness of the jaw bones, the distance between the lower surface of 

 the mouth and external surface of the skin is but small; and this skin being 

 ribbed, and very elastic, is capable of considerable distention, by which the 

 cavity of the mouth can be enlarged. The tongue of the large whalebone whale, 

 I should suppose, rose in the mouth considerably; the 2 jaws at the middle being 

 kept at such a distance on account of the whalebone, so that the space between, 

 when the mouth is shut, must be filled up by the tongue. 



Of the sense of smelling. — In this tribe of animals there is something very re- 

 markable in what relates to the sense of smelling; nor have I been able to dis- 

 cover the particular mode by which it is performed. When we consider these ani- 

 mals as quadrupeds, and only constructed differently in external form for progressive 

 motion through water, we must see that it was necessary that all the senses 

 should correspond with this medium: we must therefore be at a loss to conceive 

 how they smell, since we may observe that the organ for smelling water, as in 

 fish, is very different from that formed to smell air; and as we must suppose this 

 tribe are only to smell water, being the medium in which such odoriferous par- 

 ticles can be diffused, we should expect their organ to be similar to that of fish; 

 but in that case nature would have been obliged to have attached the nose of a 

 fish to an animal constructed like a quadruped; and it is contrary to the laws 

 which are established in the animal creation to mix parts of different animals 

 together. 



In many of this tribe there is no organ of smell at all ; and in those which 

 have such an organ, it is not that of a fish, therefore probably not calculated to 

 smell water. It becomes difficult therefore to account for the manner in which 

 such animals smell the water; and why the others should ndt have had such an 

 organ *, which I believe is peculiar to the large and small whalebone whales. 

 Though it is not the external air which they inspire that produces smell, I believe 



* Is the mode of smelling in fish similar to tasting in other animals ? Or is the air contained in the 

 water impregnated with the odoriferous parts, and this air the fish smells ? ]f so, it is somewhat 



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