256 DE. J. MUBIE ON THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CAAING WHALE. 



to comprehend the mterior organic relations, I introduce the woodcut, figure 3. 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 a?sophageal tube is throughout wide, dilating some- 

 what as it approaches the cardiac end. From the faucial aperture to where split by the 

 upright, arytenoid, laiyngeal pyramid it measures 8 inches, and thence to the stomach 

 2.3 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 rugae 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 oesophageal 

 glands. These (fig. 42, gl) 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 AVhales (Globiceps), 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 fuU account of my dissection of the parts, the 

 drawings of which are shown in figs. 32, 33. 



The first gastric cavity (/, /*) is by far the largest, and in several respects corresponds 

 to the lluminant 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 oesophagus, leads solely into this first 

 chamber. The mucous plicae 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 Globiceps, 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. V. A. p. 407) — an opinion at variance with John 

 Hunter's statement (CEcon. of Whales) and Owen's (Art. C'eiacea, Cyclop, of A. and P., and Anat. of Vert, 

 vol. iii. p. 453). 



