636 REPORT— 1889. 



from a duct of its own, running straight from the surface to the submucosa, where 

 it ends in a short hooked extremity. The secreting portion of the walls of these 

 glands is formed by a double layer of cells ; a central or columnar layer, near the 

 mouth of the duct, the cells of which, however, are more cubical in the deeper 

 portion of the gland. Outside this is a second or parietal layer completely investing 

 the tubule (and not occurring at intervals as in the cardiac glands of the stomach 

 of the dog and human subject, and as described and figured by Max Weber). 

 These cells are large nucleated granular protoplasts, irregular in shape, slightly 

 flattened, pyramidal, and each lodged in a distinct cavity formed by a framework 

 of delicate connective tissue on which small flattened nuclei are seen. This reticu- 

 lum corresponds apparently to that in the same position in the pig and in the 

 porpoise (described by Heidenhein"). It appeared at first sight as though the large 

 parietal cells were entirely surrounded by the delicate strands, but on more careful 

 examination we came to the conclusion that there is a small orifice in the inner 

 wall of the space through which the two sets of cells are brought into direct com- 

 munication. The part of the stomach after this is somewhat differently described 

 and named by difterent authors. Max Weber considers that the whole of the 

 stomach after the cardiac portion should be considered as corresponding to the 

 pyloric portion of the stomach of the carnivora. He says the glands are mucus- 

 secreting, and that in other respects they are like those found in the carnivora. He 

 goes on to say that the cetacean stomach can be compared, in some respects at least, 

 with the form of stomach met with in the Pinnipedia, in which the pyloric portion 

 is sharply defined from the cardiac. Turner, on the other hand, basing his descrip- 

 tion and nomenclature on observations on a large number of species of both 

 ziphioid and delphinoid whales, divides this portion of the stomach into interme- 

 diate and distal or pyloric divisions. Although neither of these methods of division 

 and naming is absolutely accurate, so far as our observations go, we are inclined to 

 look upon Turner's as the more convenient. In the first place, on examination of 

 the nes.t division, which we should have to call first pyloric or first intermediate 

 division, it is found that at its ' cardiac ' end there are in the deeper portions of the 

 secreting glands a number of the large parietal cells, similar to those found in the 

 cardiac glands, whilst at the distal portion of the cavity there are found only 

 ordinary columnar epithelial cells, resting on a basement membrane of flattened 

 nucleated cells. These columnar cells correspond to the pyloric or central cells. In 

 this case, then, the cavity is certainly intermediate in character in whatever light 

 it may be viewed. The two following divisions resemble one another very much 

 in all respects. The glands are all lined by cubical epithelial cells, and in the 

 deeper parts the secreting tubules branch and are somewhat irregular in their mode 

 of termination. These two divisions then must be looked upon as the true pyloric 

 part of the stomach unless some characteristic and distinctive features can in future 

 be found. 



It would appear probable from a careful study of Turner's descriptions that in 

 the narwhal the intermediate portion is not so fully developed as in the ziphioid, 

 but that the pyloric portion is somewhat more complicated, and approaches more 

 nearly the description given by Max Weber. 



In this instance, however, there is not that sharp line of demarcation at the 

 junction of the cardiac and intermediate cavities between the cardiac and pyloric 

 glands. We find the former extending for some distance into the intermediate 

 compartment, so that Max Weber's comparison of the stomach with that of the 

 Pinnipedia does not altogether hold good. We have a condition similar to that 

 found in the stoniach of the rat, in which the squamous oesophageal epithelium 

 extends for some little distance into the cardiac cavity, i.e., beyond the cardiac orifice. 



In the delphinoid cetaceans, then, there is always an oesophageal paunch, to 

 which Turner has given the most appropriate name of macerating chamber. This 

 is in no sense of the term gastric, but it helps as a storage and macerating cavity 

 from which may be regurgitated refuse material. In both ziphioids and delphinoids 

 there is a true distal or cardiac cavity lined with a layer of ' cardiac ' glands. Then 

 follow what Turner calls the intermediate divisions, from his description, numerous 



