142 BEPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE.—1914. 
sufficiently large to show whether there is an actual connection with 
the kidney itself. But from notes taken at the Station, I find that 
in one of the Blue Whales this structure was followed up, and that 
branches of the renal vein were found blocked by it in the proximal 
region of the kidney. This was also the case in the Humpback, 
No. 28. 
The interior of the digitations shows the cavities above mentioned, 
separated from each other by walls of connective tissue continuous 
with the tissue of the walls of the tube. In section the wall is seen 
to be composed of fibrous connective tissue very dense externally, 
but more open in the inner layers, where there are also some nodules 
of lymphoid tissue. The partitions between adjacent cavities come 
off from the inner layers of the outer wall. There are a few blood- 
vessels in these structures. The cavities are filled with material which 
varies in consistency from that of a rather stiff pulp to a stony hard- 
ness. In the latter case the material contains a varying amount of 
inorganic salts, chiefly calcium phosphate, of which there may be as 
much as 80 per cent. present. These concretions are very hard in 
the fully calcified condition, and are rounded in form in the Finners, 
but more rod-like in specimens taken from a Blue Whale and the 
Humpback. The soft material varies in its composition. In its 
softest state it is easily teased out in water, and is then seen to be 
composed of a mass of nematode eggs. Although the shells are 
very thick, and resist the action of pure nitric acid and of strong 
alkali, they are very transparent, and embryos may be seen in their 
interiors in stages of development varying from morula-like masses 
to small coiled worms. In the partially calcified material it is still 
possible to separate by teasing numbers of these ova, which are 
here covered with the calcium deposit. On the application of mineral 
acid the inorganic material dissolves away, leaving the ova distinctly 
recognisable as such. 
Fig. 4 shows a specimen which is confined to the renal vein, and 
has no digitations hanging into the vena cava. There is a single 
cylindrical body about 6 in. long attached to the wall of the 
renal vein by strap-like bands of varying breadth tapering somewhat 
towards their junctions with the body. Sections of this body show 
the thick wall, partitions, and congregations of ova, as described above. 
The ova appear to be embedded in a matrix nearly homogeneous, but 
containing numerous small rounded bodies, which stain daxkly with 
Ehrlich’s hematoxylin. They may be nuclei, and in that case indicate 
that the matrix is probably cellular. In the renal vein of Megaptera a 
mass of tissue was found of an elongated form, and containing hard 
calcareous material together with a number of tangled nematode worms, 
which appear to belong to the family Strongylide. The worms were 
mostly enveloped in sheathing tissue attached to the wall of the vein, but 
the sheath was not always complete. 
There can be little doubt that the presence of these worms affords 
the key to the formation of the growths described above. It is known 
that the presence in a vein of any object the surface of which is 
not smooth, or of lesions of the intima of a blood-vessel, produces 
