Royal Physical Society. 445 



the medulla spinalis and interior of the skull, by his former 

 distinguished teachers of anatomy, Drs John Barclay and Ro- 

 bert Knox. The latter, in his account of the Rorqualus Mi- 

 nor, says, " it is a mass of vascular tissue, closely resembling 

 the erectile, which filled a very large proportion of the inte- 

 rior of the cranium." As a precisely similar mechanism was 

 observed in the throat of the Bell Rock whale when the tongue 

 was removed, it is probable that this great plexus will be 

 found to anastomose with branches of the external carotid ar- 

 teries. The manner in which the blood is transmitted to this 

 arterial plexiform system, and the force by which it is effected, 

 still remains to be discovered. 



In the stomach, which consisted of five distinct parts — the 

 first and second the largest — a considerable quantity of pul- 

 taceous matter was found, with bodies of the vertebrae and 

 bones of the herring intermingled throughout the mass, These 

 were the only organic remains that could be depended on as 

 indicating the kind of food on which the animal subsisted. 



An opportunity was afforded for examining the cranium 

 before it was put up in the preserved specimen. A general 

 description of the several bones composing the skull and the 

 foramina was given, illustrated by diagrams. The Bulla Ossea, 

 with the tympanic process and petrous bone, were minutely 

 described, as, from the tympanic bullae of the whale being 

 frequently found in a fossil state, the minute characters of this 

 bone are deserving of attention, to obtain, if possible, specific 

 or generic distinctions. The bones of the skull were united, 

 either by broadly overlapping, or by deep squamous plates 

 dovetailing into each other, and could be readily separated. 

 A cartilaginous ring, half an inch thick, was interposed be- 

 tween the basi-occipital and basi-sphenoid. The number of 

 the vertebrse amounted altogether to 48, viz., 7 cervical, 11 

 dorsal, corresponding to the 11 pair of ribs, and 30 beyond, 

 including lumbar, sacral, and caudal. Comparing this for- 

 mula with seven examples of fin-whales, in which the numbers 

 of the vertebrae had been given in " Bell's History of British 

 Quadrupeds," and in the British Museum Catalogue, and like- 

 wise with two Rorquals, a male and female, 50 feet long, cap- 

 tured in Orkney in 1856, careful measurements and observa- 



