394 SCHULTE, SEI WHALE. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The foetus described in the following pages was taken by Mr. Roy C. Andrews at Aikawa, 

 Rikuzen Province, Japan, on July 5, 1910. Together with several other foetuses of other species 

 of Balcenoptera and of Megaptera, also collected by Mr. Andrews, it was entrusted by the Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural History to the Department of Anatomy of Columbia University for 

 purposes of anatomical study. At the time, the summer of 1914, the wish was expressed by 

 the Museum authorities that the foetus of B. borealis should form the subject of an anatomical 

 report to the Museum, which might be published in conjunction with Mr. Andrews's monograph 

 of the species. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of material of this sort from a 

 diminishing species, of which I am not aware that a foetus has previously been procured and 

 preserved for laboratory examination. For this unusual opportunity and for many courtesies 

 in the course of the work, I owe most grateful thanks to the officers of the American Museum, 

 and in particular to Mr. Andrews for the great assistance, which his knowledge of the adult, 

 most generously placed at my disposal, has rendered in the whole progress of the study. To 

 Professor Huntington, under whose oversight I have prosecuted this investigation, I would 

 express my deep appreciation of his interest and advice; his experience has been invaluable in 

 securing a fuller utilization of the material, his judgment on occasions innumerable has cleared 

 up difficulties both of fact and interpretation. The illustrations are the work of Mr. M. 

 Petersen, Artist to the Department of Anatomy. Their production has been a labor of infinite 

 care, most of them have been studied and drawn under a lense, and for their finished accuracy 

 of detail I am under great obligations to the patience, skill and intelligence of the artist. Dr. 

 John D. Kernan, Jr., of this department has undertaken the description of the nasal fossa and 

 the ear. 



The foetus measured 375 mm. linear length from the tip of the rostrum to the notch in 

 the flukes. Immediately upon being taken it was placed in a large receptacle of alcohol, the 

 abdomen and thorax having been previously opened by a small incision in the linea alba. In 

 a few places, the diaphragmatic surface of the liver and the dorsum of the ligamentum latum, 

 the fluid seems to have penetrated slowly, for these surfaces are pitted by minute bubbles of 

 gas. The cerebrum also has largely disintegrated, and the surface of the left lobe of the liver 

 was friable and became damaged superficially during its removal. Otherwise the viscera were 

 successfully hardened in situ and retained clear impressions of adjacent organs, so that an 

 unusually favorable opportunity was afforded to study their syntopy. For transportation 

 and storage the foetus was placed in a cylindrical jar, in which it acquired a marked spiral twist 

 to the right. This attained a maximum in the thorax and here the ribs of the right side were 

 bent in lateral to their angles with consequent deformity of the right lung and disturbance of 

 thoracic proportions. There was also considerable desquamation of the epidermis and several 

 small areas of inconsiderable 'surf ace "damage. On the whole the sum of the defects is very 

 small for material obtained and transported with such difficulty, and its great merit consists 

 in the admirable preservation of its muscles and viscera. 



Accordingly, with a view to using it to the best advantage, attention was concentrated 

 upon the myology and visceral anatomy, and in this latter field primarily upon the topography 



