278 DE. J. MUBIE ON THE ORaANIZATION OF THE CAAING WHALE. 



inappreciable in G. melas. This enormously developed sacro-coccygeus muscle is long 

 and fusiform. On each side it occupies the lateral and inferior surfaces of the vertebras 

 and their transverse processes from the ninth dorsal vertebra backwards ; and as the 

 transverse processes of the caudal elements are lost, it still continues upon them in the 

 shape of a bundle of tendons continued on to the very end of the spinal column. The 

 volume of its solid fleshy fibre may best be comprehended in the fact that it ranges in 

 our specimen of Globiocephalus from one foot to six inches in transverse diameter, and 

 with a corresponding thickness or depth. Further to particularize attaclrments and 

 relations — it passes beneath the diaphragm, has the kidneys «&c. lying upon it, and 

 narrowing behind the rectum sends oft', downwards and backwards, superficially, a series 

 of flat tendons. These are so connected together as to constitute a very strong tendino- 

 aponeurotic sheath, which spreads out and is continued on to the inferior surface of 

 the broad fibrous tail. The main body of the fleshy mass meanwhile terminates in a 

 single strong tendon, which passes direct along the spine, and is fixed to the very last 

 vertebra. Moreover there is an appreciable flat layer of fleshy fibres, which come from 

 the sides of the vertebrae and spread over part of the aforesaid tendinous sheath. This 

 muscular layer appears to be a kind of reduplication of the body of the muscle itself 



A muscle tlie exact counterpart of the supracaudal lies on the underside of the 

 transverse processes of the caudal vertebrae, and it bears the same relation to the sacro- 

 coccygeus that the supracaudal does to the longissimus dorsi, save the fact of inversion 

 of position. I distinguish it as the infracaudal. 



The long spinal muscles of Cetacea have received difierent names and significations 

 from successive anatomists, though the descriptions, save that of Stannius, tally. 

 Meckel' demonstrates the parts in the Narwal (Jlonodon monoceros) and the Dolphin 

 {Phoccena communis'^.). His text appears to me to imply that he considers present and 

 less or more difi"erentiated : — 1, an equivalent of the spinalis dorsi, biventer cervicis, and 

 complexus, a longissimus dorsi, trachelo-mastoid, and splenius capitis; 2, a sacro- 

 lumbalis, with cervicalis ascendens anteriorly (" trachelo-mastoidien, ou I'intertransver- 

 saire du cou" of his translators); 3, flexor caudse lateralis; 4, depressor caudse =qua- 

 dratus lumborum, psoas, and iliacus ; 5, an inferior depressor caudae. Frederick 

 Cuvier'* speaks of a levator caudse, evidently No. 3 above. Eapp'' and Stannius'' coincide 

 that there obtains : — a splenius capitis, longissimus and spinalis dorsi, sacro-lumbalis, 

 and transversarius superior and inferior. The former thinks the great lower loin- 

 muscle a psoas major ; to the latter it implies more. Stannius, moreover, describes a 

 caudalis superior, a caudalis inferior, a longissimus inferior, a sacro-lumbalis inferior, 

 and a set of caudal muscles unnamed by him. He also traces the short, deep spinal 

 muscles, of which more hereafter. Carte and Macalister, in the Piked Whale^, ha\e 



' Aiiat. Comp. vol. vi. p. 128 et seq. ' Art. Cetacea, Cyclop, of Anat. and Physiol, vol. i. p. 569. 



' Op. cit. p. 83 et seq. " lliill. Archiv, 1849, pp. 22-32. 



' Loc. cit. p. 225. 



