206 PROFESSOR TURNER'S ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT FINNER WHALE 



wards (Plate VI. fig. 9). Behind each of these folds was the mouth of the 

 shallow nipple fossa ; the nipple was rudimentary, and concealed by the promi- 

 nent anterior border of the fossa. The posterior border was feeble, and here the 

 fossa blended with the general surface of the abdominal wall. Passing back- 

 wards, midway between these fossse, was a well-defined raphe reaching to the 

 anus. The abdominal wall was much torn in front and at the root of the 

 penis, and the exact attachment of the umbilical cord could scarcely be recog- 

 nised, but it was estimated to be connected about 18 inches in front of the 

 root of the penis ; for the cord, though carefully divided at the time when the 

 foetus was removed from the mother, had been used, along with the penis, as 

 a convenient object to lift with by the men employed to carry the calf, and con- 

 sequently both they, and the part of the wall to which they were connected, had 

 sustained injury. The tail was subdivided into two elegantly curved horizontal 

 lobes (fig. 3). The sides and ventral surface showed the characteristic plicated 

 appearance (fig. 4). On the top of the head, 1 foot 5 inches behind the blow- 

 hole, was an oval patch 1 inch long by f ths broad. It was raised somewhat above 

 the level of the integument. The shape of the flipper is represented in fig 5. 



The colour of the integument was a warm grey, mottled here and there with 

 yellow. Patches of dark steel-grey pigment were observed on the back ; but 

 none of the light silver-grey tints, seen in the large whale, were observed on the 

 belly. I believe that desquamation of the cuticle had taken place very exten- 

 sively before the calf came into my possession. 



I had anticipated that the comparatively small size of the foetus would, 

 by giving me greater command over the dissection, have enabled me to have 

 worked out all those points in the anatomy of this whale, which I could not 

 overtake in the older animal. But in many respects I was disappointed, for 

 the weight of the foetus, which amounted to about half a ton, and its length of 

 almost twenty feet, rendered it a most unwieldy object to transport to the 

 Anatomical Museum. Moreover, putrefaction had to some extent advanced 

 before I had the opportunity to examine it ; the abdominal wall was torn, and 

 the viscera in that cavity were so much injured, that but little definite informa- 

 tion respecting the stomach and intestines could be obtained. The muscles also 

 had undergone a remarkable kind of decomposition ; the odour exhaled from 

 them was peculiarly acrid and offensive, which, together with their softened 

 condition, rendered it impossible to make a proper study of those important 

 parts of the locomotory system. The bones of the skull and spine were also to 

 some extent displaced. 



A number of measurements were taken, a table of which I subjoin ; but in 

 consequence of the displacement just referred to, some of the dimensions are 

 probably not absolutely exact, but are to be regarded as the closest approxima- 

 tion which could be obtained : — 



