292 DR. J. MURIE ON THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CAAING WHALE. 
as they are, they yet retain a physiological importance of no mean value. In them can 
rest no power of expression whatsoever; withal, what a development of parts which in 
higher mammalia are devoted mainly to such a faculty! It would seem as if there were 
no end to utilitarian purposes. The same tool which in the Cetacean is perforce 
adjunct to the respiratory act, is transformed in the Ruminantia to a grasper of herbage, 
in the Suide to a digging-instrument, in the Elephantide to a tactile flexible limb, and 
so on. 
Again, in the fish-like form of body of Whales, there rules similarity of spinal 
tendino-muscular distribution. It is easy to trace the homologues of the great lateral 
piscine muscles and even their segments (myocommas). For whether studied in the 
longitudinal direction, or in cross section, there can be recognized counterparts of fibre, 
tendon, and flesh as found in the predacious Shark and others of the finny tribe. 
There is one piece of organic mechanism in which, so far as Globiceps is concerned, 
I do not quite follow the descriptive evidence of previous anatomists. I allude to the 
motions of the larynx. As I find it in this form, it is difficult to conceive how it is 
thrust upwards and downwards, and firmly constricted at every expiration and inspira- 
tion. The chief directions it seems capable of moving in are fore-and-aft, with a 
limited power of elevation and moderate dilatation and approximation of the aryteno- 
epiglottic funnel. It appears to me that the upper portion of the funnel at all times 
rests in the posterior nares, upright, and with an obliquity corresponding to the direc- 
tion of the inferior nasal channel. This leaves one of the pharyngeal passages wider 
than the other, along which the greatest bulk of the food must pass. It is during 
deglutition, not respiration, that the strongest action of a grasping and elevating nature 
takes place, in this presenting a certain agreement with the second phase of the act in 
ourselves. At such times perfect closure of the funnel by compression of the circular 
fibres of the superior constrictor, and elevation through contraction of the longitudinal 
ones, blockades the postnares and sends the food on to the cesophageal sphincters in the 
rear. When expiration and inspiration are about to take place, it is quite obvious that 
were the naso-laryngeal sphincter forcibly to grasp the aryteno-epiglottic tube, and 
powerfully drag it upwards, as some assert is the case, the consequence would be 
closure of the breathing-tube itself. I conceive that in the performance of respiration 
there is a firm but moderate contraction of the naso-pharyngeal parts, sufficient only to 
steady the aryteno-epiglottic funnel, and prevent passage of air into the gullet. At the 
same time those laryngeal muscles which act as dilators open the cartilaginous tube, 
and give free vent to the outgoing and incoming air. Meanwhile also the muscular and 
resilient cartilaginous parts at the spiracular orifice play in active unison. 
The function of the retia mirabilia, with which Whales above all other vertebrata are 
copiously furnished, is still a matter of conjecture. Such men as Hunter, Cuvier, and 
Breschet have looked upon them in the light of reservoirs, to store up an excess of 
arterial blood, needful during the animal’s long submersion—a kind of supplementary 
