Naturelle des Cetaces. 181 



No distinct mention is made of the source whence the informa- 

 tion concerning this very peculiar structure has been derived. But 

 J. Hunter accurately described it in his paper in the Phil. Trans. ; 

 and Dr Barclay pointed it out many years ago as surrounding the 

 spinal cord of the Beluga. * Neither of these gentlemen, however, 

 ventured to assign a use to it. M. Breschet published some remarks 

 concerning it in the Mem. de l'Acad. des Sciences for 1834 : this 

 volume we have not been able to procure; but we learn, — though 

 not from the work before us, — that to him belongs the merit of as- 

 sociating this very peculiar structure, with the no less extraordinary 

 anomaly in the function of breathing, in this Order. Our author 

 introduces the subject both when treating of the smaller Cetacea ge- 

 nerally, and also in his preliminary discourse, whence we are led to 

 infer that this remarkable piece of anatomy is not peculiar to the 

 smaller, but occurs also among the largest genera. 



Another statement, new to us, and also introduced without any 

 reference to other authority, relates to the functions of respiration, 

 and the anatomy of the lungs. It is in these words : " It is said 

 that the (dauphins) smaller Cetacea have the lungs surrounded with 

 muscular fibres, which contract both in the act of inspiration and ex- 

 piration ; and that the tubes so communicate with each other, that by 

 inflating one you inflate all." In the latter part of this announce- 

 ment, we recognize an observation Avhich was made long ago by Mr 

 J. Hunter, and therefore we have no doubt of its accuracy. The 

 former part of the statement, on the other hand, we do not remem- 

 ber to have previously met with ; and, if true, it would bear more 

 ample details than have here been bestowed upon it. 



A third interesting observation respects the skin, and rests upon 

 the investigations of MM. Breschet and Roussel. According to 

 these able anatomists, there may be discovered in the skin of the 

 Cetacea, as well as of other Mammalia, six principal parts which rest 

 on or penetrate into it, but which have all special and distinct func- 

 tions to perform. These nre,Jirst, the derme or true-skin, a dense, 

 fibrous, cellular canvas or net-work, which contains and protects all 

 the rest. In the whales it is always white and opaque, and its su- 

 perior surface exhibits a set of papillae, the intervals of which are 

 filled with a horny tissue — the epidermis. There is, 2rf/j/, the pa- 

 pilla? just alluded to, which in the whale are several lines long, and 

 are of a pearly colour ; they are composed of fibres coming from and 

 returning to the subcutaneous nervous plexi ; and among them the 

 blood-vessels freely penetrate. 3dly, There are the exhalents or 



* Wern. Mem. iii. 



