262 DK. J. MTJRTE ON THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CAAING WHALE. 



The softened condition of the pancreas prevented my making as satisfactory an exami- 

 nation as I could have wished. It measured 11^ inches, had a breath of between 4 and 

 5 inches, and weighed 8^ ounces. It occupied chiefly the interspace between the right 

 border of the first stomach and the duodenal loop, being covered in great part by the 

 omentum and gut. Its excretory duct, as mentioned, joined the hepatic. Drs. Williams, 

 Jackson, and Turner nearly agree as to the proportions of this organ, its breadth under 

 half its length ; theii" specimens were younger than the above. 



Professor Turner's observations' on the lacteal vessels and mesenteric glands bear the 

 stamp of accuracy. I am at one with him regarding Abernethy's^ supposed great bags. 

 These are undoubtedly the product of decomposition ; for I satisfied myself, on studying 

 several transverse sections in my specimen of G. melas, where considerable cavities 

 existed, that these were solely due to disintegration of the interior tissue and not to be 

 confounded with the lymphatic sinuses. I may further say, from long experience in 

 such matters, that the mesenteric glands, next to the blood and brains, soonest spoil 

 and internally decompose. The rectal cluster of glands mentioned by Turner are 

 shown in my figure 73. 



The spleen, &c., I shall notice in connexion with the blood-reservoirs. 



V. Eespikation and Machineet involved. 



1. Hyoidean and laryngeal Structures. — The hyoidean arch (figs. 14, 15, & 16) con- 

 sists of five separate elements, a single and two pairs of bones. The body, or more or 

 less ankylosed thyro- and basihyals, is a broad and thickish crescentiform bone, whose 

 widest diameter, from tip to tip, is 9^ inches. From the anterior border there juts 

 forwards a flat rostrum, basihyal, 1-7 inch wide, which terminally forks, and to the 

 extremities of which the ceratohyals are affixed by a fibro-cartUaginous joint. The 

 latter bones are each some 2 inches long, xq of an inch in diameter, subcylindrical, and 

 very slightly curved. Another fibro-cartilaginous joint exists between the ceratohyal 

 and the stylohyal bone ; and these are bent at a shai-p angle to each other. Individually 

 the stylohyal osseous rods are stout, thickish at the middle third, or 1^ inch in diameter 

 at this point, and with a length of 8^ inches. 



The larynx has the common Cetacean formation of an elongate, nearly upright, and 

 slightly efflect. tubular epiglottis and arytenoid cartilages. The latter are rather higher 

 than the former^ and with an emarginate lip front forwards. The former is a broader 

 semilune, the aperture being relatively small, and in the ordinary contracted condition, 

 widest transversely. The tube is narrowest in the middle, and basally wide. The body 

 of the thyroid cartilage is somewhat flat and with large expanded alse. These jut out 



' Pilot Whale, /. c. p. 76. 



' " Some particulars in the Anatomy of a Whale," Phil. Trans. 1796, vol. xvii. p. 673. 

 • In the young specimen dissected at Boston, U. S., the arytenoid cartilages are mentioned as not rising 

 quite BO high as the epiglottis, /. c. p. 165. 



