120 PROF, W. B. BENHAM ON THE [May 21, 



In the pyloric chamber " the raucous membrane is smooth, soft, 

 and of a darker red than in the preceding chamber. Sections show 

 that here, too, peptic glands occur ; though of a different shape and 

 length. From the ill-preserved state it is difficult to give an 

 accurate detailed account, but ifc appears that the " duct " of each 

 gland is much longer, and the branching takes place deeper in the 

 epithelium than in the cardiac chamber. The mucous membrane is 

 not uniformly thick, but in a given section the free surface describes 

 undulations ; in the thinner parts of the sections the g^lands consist 

 of one kind of cell only, recalling the pyloric glands of ordinary 

 mammals ; but in the thicker parts patches of glands occur which 

 show the osyutic cells quite plainly, and even in greater numbers 

 than in the cardiac chamber. 



Although figures are apt to be misleading, yet the following 

 afford an idea of the relative thickness of the mucous membrane in 

 these different parts : — 



In oesophagus it is 0-025 mm. 

 „ paunch ifc is 0*37 mm. 

 „ cardiac chamber it is 1'5 mm. 

 „ pyloric chamber it is from 0-4 to 0-75 mm. 



BemarJcs. — It is well known that in the Cetacea the " stomach " 

 consists of several chambers, and Sir W. Turner (13, 14) has 

 given an account of the arrangements met with in different families 

 of the Order. It appears that in the majority of Odontocetes the 

 " first chamber " is in reality a dilatation of the cesophagus ; a 

 fact that was recognized more than 200 years ago by Edward 

 Tyson [16] who, according to Turner, recognized that this first 

 compartment is " lined by a continuation of its inward tunic, which 

 we now know to be of squamous epithelium," so that it seems to be 

 a sac-like dilatation of that tube ; or, in short, a " paunch." Only 

 in the Ziphioids is this paunch absent; in them, notwithstanding 

 the many chambers, all are true gastric chambers, lined by 

 glandular epifchehum. Although other authors, as for example 

 Murie [4] for the Caa'ing Whale, compares this first chamber to a 

 ruminant paunch, and Huxley in his Textbook (p. 395) also speaks 

 of the first chamber as " a kind of paunch lined by a thick epi- 

 thelium " (see also Yf iedersheiin), yet it appears that Turner was 

 the first to investigate the character of the mucous membrane by 

 means of microscopic sections ; the literature at my disposal is 

 sparse, but Turner gives no reference to anyone who had previously 

 cut sections of the stomach-wall. 



It seems necessary to insist on this fact that the first chamber is, 

 in the majority of Cetace:i., a " paunch " since in some English 

 textbooks, even of recent years, the complex of chambers is still 

 spoken of as " stomach." Turner has pointed out, and no doubt 

 other workers on the group have done so, that this 'paunch" 

 serves not merely for receiving and holding food, in the way that the 

 paunch of the Euminant does, but that there is abundant evidence 

 that the digestive juice is discharged from the true stomach into 



