484 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



The flesh below the epidermis and skin is reddish, coarse, 

 hard, and dry, by no means agreeable to the taste, and im- 

 pregnated with an unpleasant odour. 



Between the flesh and skin is sometimes a coat of fat, 

 more than a foot in thickness, on the head and neck. A 

 part of this fat is so liquid, that it often forms an oil with- 

 out the necessity of having recourse to the process of ex- 

 pression. 



The quantity of blood which circulates in the Whale, 

 is greater in proportion than that which flows in the veins 

 of quadrupeds. The diameter of the aorta is sometimes 

 more than thirteen inches. 



The heart of the Whale is broad and flatted. This animal 

 has a true caecum, a very voluminous liver, a spleen of no 

 great extent, pancreas very long, and a bladder of middling 

 size and elongated form. The stomach of the Whale is pe- 

 culiarly conformed ; instead of four cavities, as in the 

 Ruminantia, there are five very distinct and separate in the 

 Balaanaj. 



When we proceed from the consideration of the softer 

 parts of the Balaenae, to that of the osseous frame-work 

 which sustains and consolidates them, the enormous masses 

 presented to our view excite astonishment and admiration. 



While this animal is yet young, the parietal bones adhere 

 closely to the temporal and the occiput, so as to be soldered 

 (as it were) together. These five bones form together a vault 

 of a good many feet in length, with a breadth of about half 

 as much. On opening the cranium, the interior of its base 

 is almost level. On considering it externally, the two orbi- 

 tal foramina which form a communication between the ca- 

 vity of the orbit of the eye and the nasal foss, are very 

 small in the Common Whale, and covered by osseous 

 laminae. 



The two bones of the lower jaw form, by their union, a 

 portion of a circle or ellipsis, from four and twenty to eight 

 and twenty feet in diameter. In the gallery of anatomy in 



