110 CETACEA. 



The oesophagus was strong and muscular, smooth on its inside, with 

 a pretty thick pulpy cuticle, only separable by putrefaction. This 

 smooth surface terminated all at once into the first cavity of the 

 stomach, whose internal surface is very different. The size of the 

 oesophagus is about 5 inches in diameter. 



Of the Stomach. — The stomach is composed of a chain of bags, seven 

 in number, and of very different sizes. The first bag, into which the 

 oesophagus passes, is by much the largest, acting probably as a reservoir 

 for food 1 ; the other six would seem to be a series of cavities, becoming 

 larger and larger to the last. The first of these arises, laterally, from 

 the first or reservoir, and may be only reckoned a small pouch. The 

 second arises from this in the same manner, but is considerably larger ; 

 so on with the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth, in regular succession. 

 The opening of these bags into one another is by round holes aboixt 

 three inches wide. The stomach contained only the bills of some 

 hundreds of cuttle-fish ; which bills were found principally in the last 

 bag but one, which is the sixth cavity of the stomach, and a few were 

 found in the fourth and fifth cavities. There were none of the cuttle- 

 fish bones found in these cavities. There was also found a substance 

 like the inner surface of a gizzard. The pylorus was about an inch 

 and a quarter wide. 



Of the Intestines. — The intestines had no csecum, being one continued 

 canal from pylorus to anus, nearly of an equal size through their whole 

 length, being fully \\ inch in diameter, appearing upon the whole to 

 be rather short for the size of the animal. The contents were soft. 



I shall suppose tbat the duodenum passes to the right and downwards, 

 and makes a quick turn upon itself to the left. The duodenum imme- 

 diately swells out into a pretty large cavity, which becomes smaller 

 and smaller towards the quick turn above mentioned. This swell of 

 the duodenum might be reckoned an eighth cavity ; but, as the gall- 

 duct enters it, I shall call it duodenum 2 ; although there is a similar bag 

 in the porpoise that must be reckoned with the stomach. 



Nearly through the whole track of the intestines the inner coat was 

 thrown into large cells, and these at their bottom were again subdivided 

 into smaller. The axis of those cells were not perpendicular to a 

 transverse section of the intestine, but were oblique, so as to form 

 pouches with their mouths downwards, so as to act almost like valves 



1 [Hunt. Prep. No. 572, showing the abrupt termination of the thick epithelium, 

 peculiar to this cavity.] 



2 [" Immediately beyond the pylorus there is a dilatation of the gut, which must be 

 considered as duodenum, since the common duct of the liver and pancreas enter into 

 it." — Home, Comp. Anat. i. p. 254.] 



