STRANDED AT LONGNIDDRY. 219 



When the papillae were carefully extracted from the tubes, and examined 

 with high powers of the microscope, they were seen to consist of a delicate, 

 wavy, connective tissue, the filaments of which lay parallel to the long axis of 

 the papilla. The nucleated corpuscles of the connective tissue were distinctly 

 recognised after the papilla had soaked some time in glycerine. On the free 

 surface of the papillae a very distinct layer of flattened polygonal cells, with 

 their borders in close contact with each other, like epithelial cells on a free 

 surface, was met with. These cells were soft and delicate, and were evidently 

 the youngest layer of epithelial cells lying next the papillae, which had not 

 yet undergone the horny transformation. In some of the papillae I saw, more 

 especially at their broader attached ends, elongated fibres, having a double 

 contour, which I believe to have been medullated nerve fibres. 



The baleen of the foetus of the Longniddry whale possessed some features 

 of interest, to which I may now refer. Only the wreath, which was met with 

 early in the dissection of the mother, was preserved, for the opposite wreath, 

 which had also been shed from the palatal surface, was lost in the course of the 

 dissection. The wreath was 4 feet long, and 3^ inches in its greatest transverse 

 diameter. The anterior end had been broken away, and lost, but the posterior 

 end was flattened, and terminated in an obtuse angle. Notwithstanding the 

 loss of its most anterior portion, as many as 335 transverse rows were counted 

 in the wreath, and they were slightly curved with the convexity forwards. 

 Owing to the comparative thinness of the intermediate substance, the interval 

 between any two adjacent transverse rows was not more than j^th of an inch. 

 Here, as in the adult, the outer or labial plate in each transverse row was by far 

 the largest ; indeed, those internal to it were little more than short bristles in the 

 foetus. In the greater part of the wreath seven, eight, or sometimes nine plates 

 or bristles were counted in each transverse row. Towards the anterior end 

 only five were counted ; but posteriorly, where the external plate, like those 

 internal to it, consisted of a mere bristle, — the number of bristles in the row 

 had increased to about thirty, and at the same time the rows increased very 

 materially in their obliquity. Quite at the posterior end the bristles were so 

 feeble as scarcely to be visible. 



In the foetal wreath I recognised not only the transverse arrangement just 

 described, but also a distinct antero-posterior or longitudinal arrangement of 

 the baleen. The outer longitudinal row was formed by the series of large plates, 

 whilst those internal consisted of the bristle-like baleen. The number of longi- 

 tudinal rows varied, however, in different parts of the wreath, where variations 

 occurred in the number of elements in the transverse rows. 



The baleen had not the rich black colour so characteristic of the plates in 

 the older animal. The plates were dark grey, intermingled with black. The 

 setae were light grey, and the intermediate substance had a similar tint. The 



