ON THE GREENLAND RIGHT-WHALE. 69 



uninterrupted series of baleen, must also be considered as one entire matrix of whalebone. This 

 is limited inwardly by the lip-shaped border before mentioned, running along the middle of the 

 palate, outwardly by a similar but much higher fold of the membrane in close connection with 

 the exterior surface of the whalebone plates. These two folds form together the '' Krandsbaand" 

 (wreath-band), as it. is called. 



The Greenland whale has two matrices, one on either side ; in the rorquals the matrices 

 coalesce in front into one. In both of these matrices we must distinguish between those parts 

 which project in the shape of blades or filaments, which we shall denote by the name of pulps, 

 or pulp-blades, and the intervals between them where the membrane of the palate is smoothly 

 extended over the bone. In the former as well as in the latter parts of the surface of the matrix, 

 epidermic cells are continually forming, but the cells of the pulp-blades and those of the smooth 

 intervals are essentially different from each other, the former hardening into a horn-like substance, 

 the latter not. The horny whalebone-blades are formed separately each on its own pulp-blade, 

 and are only kept together (besides by the fold encircling the whole set of whalebone) nearest 

 to the palate by the soft cells on its smooth intervals. But these cells always form here a layer 

 several inches thick, so that in the newborn specimens scarcely more than the hairy bristles 

 of the whalebone-blades projected beyond it. The cells, of course, are perfectly homologous 

 with epidermic cells in general. It can only be considered as a simple consequence of 

 the influence of the surrounding water, that instead of drying up in the form of scales, like 

 epidermic cells in general, they form in this place a soft white substance, most analogous to the 

 mucus of the mucous membrane. As it is principally situated between the blades of whalebone, 

 we shall often in the following part of our memoir simply denominate it by the name of the " inter- 

 mediate substance " (called the " gum," by Scoresby). 



By the name of a blade or lamina of whalebone we have hitherto understood not only the 

 chief blade, but, at the same time, all the subsidiary blades inside the chief blade. The chief 

 blade, however, is in all right-whales, and especially in the Greenland whale, so disproportionately 

 large, particularly in point of length, that its subsidiary blades are most commonly not noticed at 

 all, and the name of " a blade or lamina of whalebone" means generally only the exterior chief blade. 

 The length of the adjoining and therefore largest subsidiary blade may always be ascertained 

 simply by measuring the interior edge of the chief blade, which is parallel with, but a great deal 

 shorter than, the exterior edge. 



In the horny whalebone, in the chief blade as well as in each of its subsidiary blades, we must 

 distinguish between the exterior solid layer, the cortical layer, or the " enamel " as it has been 

 called, and the interior medullary part consisting entirely of horny fibres. In the natural position of 

 the blade the medullary part issues from that edge of the pulp, which is turned downwards and 

 inwards, whereas the enamel is prolonged in the form of a sheath over the whole surface of the 

 pulp, until it ends in a free margin quite up at the place where the pulp rises from the common 

 matrix. This part of the enamel, which, instead of enclosing the medullary tissue, sheathes the 

 pulp-blade itself becomes thinner the nearer it approaches to the fixed edge of the latter ; near the 

 free margin which encircles the entrance of the cavity of the blade into which the pulp fits, it is so 

 extremely thin that the margin itself is scarcely ever to be seen in its natural sharp outline. 

 When the blade is pulled with due caution ofi' the pulp, we may easily be convinced that 

 where nearest to the mucous membrane of the palate, it imperceptibly loses itself in a layer of the 

 soft white substance. In other words, the limit between the horny cells of the pulp-blade and 



