296 , LILLJEBORG ON THE 



at Skara), November the 21st, 1705, and is written by J. Moræus, M.D.,^ to E. Benze- 

 lius, jun., then Hbrarian, afterwards appointed archbishop, and runs thus : — " I had forthwith 

 an opportunity of going to Wanga to examine closely ossa gigantis, all of which were not yet dug 

 up, l)ut only S or 9 vertebræ, both shoulder-blades, one side bone, and one broken shin-bone. 

 The joints of the back bone were each more than 6 inches wide, and fully 3 thick ; the side bone was 

 as thick as the arm of a child 3 or 4 years old ; and the shin bone, although it was broken, would 

 reach me almost to the navel. As soon as the entire skeleton is dug up it will be carried from 

 here to the cathedral in Skara, and I will then have an opportunity of examining it closer, and 

 give a minute description of the same ■; but we can find from the vertebræ, which generally 

 are only 2 inches wide, and from the shin bone, that it was an immense body." 



The other extract is from a letter from Emanuel Svedberg to the same Erik Benzelius, dated 

 Brunsbo, Gth March, 1710, and reads: — "The giant bones were sent some 4 or 5 weeks ago, 

 and have probably reached their destination." It seems from both the letters, as well as from 

 the treatise quoted, that they were at first considered to be giant's bones. It was not discovered 

 until after closer examination that they were "of a whale or some other large fish."^ It is not 

 mentioned who made this determination, but it was probably Professor Roberg or E. Svedenborg. 

 The former letter informs us more particularly about the time of the discovery, and gives a 

 very important statement about the number of bones, &c., and that they were to be carried 

 to the cathedral in Skara, where they were probably kept until, according to the latter letter, 

 they were in 1710 removed to Upsala, thus about 5 years. Although the digging up of 

 the bones was not completed when Moræus sent his communication to Benzelius, he mentions 

 a bone in it that is not now to be found among those that are preserved here. He speaks of 

 both shoulder-blades, and there is only one here. It seems from this that either a part of the 

 bones were not carried to Upsala, perhaps were not all carried even to the Cathedral at Skara, 

 or else that a part of them have in the course of time been destroyed ; the first seems to me most 

 likely. Major L. Gyllenhal presented in 1S23, according to the 'Acts of the Royal Academy of 

 Science ' for that year, p. 373, to the academy, a vertebra of a whale, " found in a deeper excava- 

 tion, in a brook at the village of Wanga, in Westergothland,'' probably at the opening of a spring 

 there.* The late Dr. Marldin told Dr. StyflPe that he was informed by Gyllenhal, that the 

 whale skeleton mentioned by Svedenborg was found in the excavation of a brook near a place 

 called Glattestorp. They were, according to Svedenborg's treatise, sent to Professor Roberg, 

 in this place, and were preserved in the Nosocomium in 1719, when the treatise was written. 

 Professor F. Sundevall has been kind enough to inform me that they remained in the Nosoco- 

 mium until, in consequence of some considerable repairs being carried on on this building, they 

 were removed to the Anatomical Museum in 1 S40-50. Professor Sundevall, after being appointed 



He was at that time Medicus Provinciæ for tlie province of Skaraborg, and became afterwards 

 City Physician and Assessor in FaUun, and father-in-law to the Archiator v. Linné. 



I do not know whether Moræus ever gave any more minute description. The ' Catalogue of 

 the Collection of B. Benzelius' Letters' does not mention any other letter to him from Moræus than the 

 one referred to. 



It should be stated, that whales were always classed with fish until Linné separated them, 

 and included them in the class of mammalia. 



I have since seen this vertebra, and I am convinced that it belongs to the same skeleton as 

 that mentioned by Svedenborg. 



