908 PRINCIPAL SIR WILLIAM TURNER ON 
with its intervertebral cartilages was about 304 feet long, it was 28 times longer than the 
cervical spine. As the individual vertebree of the neck were immobile on each other, 
movement in this region was restricted to the occipito-atloid articulations and to the 
joints between the 7th cervical and the 1st dorsal vertebra. The head therefore, large 
and weighty, was articulated by a movable joint at the anterior end of the spine to a 
compact mass of bone formed of the seven cervical vertebrze and ossified discs. 
The length collectively of the bodies of the dorsal vertebre was 7 feet, to which 
18 inches may be added as the probable thickness of their intervertebral cartilages, 
together about 102 inches. The entire spine was from 30 to 31 feet long, about 34 times 
longer, therefore, than the dorsal vertebre plus their cartilages. The dorsal region was 
characterised by the mobility of the vertebree on each other and by that of the ribs on 
the vertebrz during respiration. 
The length collectively of the bodies of the lumbar vertebrx was 8 feet 2 inches, the 
thickness of their intervertebral cartilages was probably 19 inches, together 117 inches. 
The entire spine was about 3 times longer than the lumbar vertebre with their 
cartilages. 
The collective length of the bodies of the caudal vertebre was 10 feet 4 inches, 
that of their intervening cartilages was possibly 12 inches, together 136 inches. The 
entire colun was about 2? times longer than the caudal region. ‘The length of the 
entire lumbo-caudal region was 253 inches. The bones of this region have attached to 
them the powerful muscles concerned in the movements of the hinder part of the body 
of the whale, more especially in the working of its broad tail, so that more than one- 
half the length of the spine takes a part in locomotion, and enables a speed of 8 to 10 
or even a greater number of miles an hour to be obtained. 
In the specimen with the spinal column, the skull proper, in a straight line from 
the occipital condyl to the tip of the premaxilla, was 12 feet 63 inches long. As 
the free ends of the mandible apparently projected slightly beyond the premaxille, 
the skull was longer by a few inches, and may be at least 13 feet (156 inches). The 
entire vertebral column was about 24 times longer than the skull. 
The skeleton, including the skull, mandible, and intervertebral dises of this adult 
male was probably about 44 feet long, and if one were to add a foot as representing 
the thickness of the soft parts at the mandibular and caudal ends, the estimated length 
of this specimen was about 45 feet, so that the proportion of the head was son 
more than one-fourth the entire length of the animal. 
In Balena mysticetus the vertebral column usually contained 55 vertebrae, though 
56, or only 54, have been noted. They are grouped as follows: C,D,,LCd,, or 3g. The 
cervicals, as in biscayensis and australis,* are fused together as a large block. 
Escuricut and Remnnarpr have shown that in the new-born mysticetus and in the 
foetus the cervicals form one undivided mass of cartilage, so that the fusion is funda- 
* J have described the cervicals of B, australis from New Zealand in my Challenger Report on the Bones of the 
Cetacea, Reports, Zoology, part iv., 1880. 
