256 DR. J. MURIE ON THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CAAING WHALE. 
to comprehend the interior organic relations, I introduce the woodcut, figure 5. Ceteris 
paribus, it may stand as a type of the Cetacean formation, and is essentially applicable 
to the preceding and succeeding sections. 
2. The Alimentary Canal.—The cesophageal tube is throughout wide, dilating some- 
what as it approaches the cardiac end. From the faucial aperture to where split by the 
upright, arytenoid, laryngeal pyramid it measures 8 inches, and thence to the stomach 
23 inches. The mucous lining is of a pink hue, and plicated longitudinally. These 
folds widen and enlarge towards the ventral end; at the cardiac orifice, which is large, 
the ridges alter and merge gradually into the corrugate ruge and white epithelial 
lining of the first gastric cavity. At about a foot’s length from the stomach I observed 
a number of irregularly scattered, little, oval depressions, or openings of cesophageal 
glands. These (fig. 42, g/) are situated an inch or two apart, and occupy the ridges, 
but not the interspaces or sulci. A transverse section through the wall of the ceso- 
phagus (fig. 43) showed moderate outer circular, and inner longitudinal muscular 
coats, and a much greater lamina of fibro-areolar tissue, or middle coat, capped by 
a thickish mucous layer. 
Mr. Gulliver, in his notes on the Dundrum-Bay Whales (G/lodiceps), alludes to but 
two compartments of the stomach, as does Williams in the Chinese species’. Dr. 
Jackson describes five separate cavities and a subsidiary one, besides a supplementary 
one connected with the first. Professor Turner assigns to the species five gastric com- 
partments. My examination of this female leads to me think G. melas possesses but four 
true digestive cavities, that which has been taken for another being merely an enlarged 
parietal passage between the second and third compartments. In elucidation of this 
discrepancy of opinion, I render a full account of my dissection of the parts, the 
drawings of which are shown in figs. 32, 33. 
The first gastric cavity (2, /*) is by far the largest, and in several respects corresponds 
to the Ruminant Paunch. Its measurements were, 20 inches in extreme length, and 
34 inches in widest circumference, at the cardiac end somewhere about 10 inches round, 
and much less than that at the opposite inferior tapering extremity. The cardiac orifice, 
not constricted, but a trifle narrower than the cesophagus, leads solely into this first 
chamber. The mucous plice at this point are slightly puckered together, but imme- 
diately below enlarge and form serpentine longitudinal folds with short interdigitating 
cross and oblique offshoots; both these diminish at the apical end of the cavity, which 
is comparatively smooth. Upon the left wall, 3 inches below the cardiac orifice, is a 
wide aperture leading into the second gastric chamber. As in the Ruminant’s paunch, 
below the opening into the second cavity in Glodiceps, there stretches obliquely across 
and downwards on the posterior wall of the first stomach a large and wide fold of 
‘ Professor Huxley agrees with Dr. Brinton’s description, that the stomach of the Porpoise consists of three 
cavities (Hunt. Lect., Lancet, 1866, p. 350, and Manual of A. Y. A. p. 407)—an opinion at variance with John 
Hunter's statement (con. of Whales) and Owen’s (Art. Ceracra, Cyclop. of A, and P., and Anat. of Vert. 
vol. iii. p. 453). 
