652 Dr. F. E. Beddard on the Blow-holes and 



the apex of the triangle is above and the base below, 

 and the walls are but little plicated. It is in this stage 

 when the oropharynx communicates with it from bellow. 



§ Spermaceti Orr/aii. 



I have not been able to ascertain the presence of a reo^n- 

 larly defined spermaceti organ in this young foetus. The 

 organ is figured by Pouchet and Beauregard * in their 

 often-quoted memoir as lying on the right side above and to 

 the right of the right nasal passage, which is here inclined 

 obliquely downwards from the middle line of the head 

 towards the right. It is also represented as lying witliin a 

 distinctly marked fibrous sheath. This animal is, however, 

 a young male, oE which the head is 1*30 M. Messrs. 

 Kernan and Shulte t deal with the same organ in a foetal 

 Pygmy Sperm- Whale, which is large, measuring in total 

 length 109'7 cm. Contrary to the statements of Pouchet and 

 his colleague, these two authors find no connection between 

 the spermaceti sac and the nasal passage. But (they add) 

 " we may indeed think of the spermaceti chambers as 

 belonging embryologically to the nasal tract.^' As the 

 embryo examined by these authors is, as I have already 

 pointed out, a large one, it became a matter of great interest 

 to myself to endeavour to follow out this matter in a much 

 younger foetus. In searching for the spermaceti organ it 

 was obviously unnecessary to go further back than the 

 dorsal upgrowths of the maxillary bones which in the adult 

 bound posteriorly the " case ^' which contains the oil. 



The space, therefore, where only the spermaceti organ 

 can lie in the foetus is limited to that part of the whole 

 snout which is relatively small in the foetus, i. e., about 

 6'5 mm,, but which expands enormously in the adult. The 

 other organs lying in this part of the snout, i. e., nasal 

 passages, muscles, &c., bring it about that the or>^an, if 

 present, must lie medianly in position. And, as a mutter 

 of fact, the middle region here is filled with a lax tissue 

 with branched cells ; this is undoubtedly, as I think, the 

 beginning of the organ sought for. But it has in this stage 

 no trace that I could discover of a sheath, fibrous or other- 

 wise. And, moreover, there is at the same time no indication 



* Loc. cit. pi. vi. fig-. 2. 



i " Memoranda upon the Anatomy of the Eespiratory Tract ... of 

 the foetal Kogia bveviceps,'^ Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist, xxxviii. 1918, 

 p. 231. See also Danois, " llecherclies de PAniitomie de la Tete de 

 Ko(jia hreviccp!'., Blainv./' Arch. Zool. Exp. (5) vi. 1910, p. 149, etc. 



