REVUE SUISSE DE ZOOLOGIE 

 Tome 79, fasc. 1, n" 7: 235-252 — Mars 1972 



235 



Hematological, plasmatic and urinary values 

 of three species of cetaceans 

 belonging to the family Platanistidae 

 [Inia geojfrensis (de Blainville, 1817); 

 Platanista indi (Blyth, 1859); 

 and Platanista gangetica (Roxburgh, 1801)] 



by 



T. De MONTE and G. PILLERI 



Brain Anatomy Institute, University of Berne (Switzerland) 



With 4 figures and 4 tables 



In February 1968 four spécimens of Inia geoffrensis were caught in the Rio 

 Ibarè, a tributary of the Rio Mamorè (Beni, BoHvia), during an expédition to 

 the Amazon organized and led by G. Pilleri. 



In December of the following year a second expédition to India and Pakistan 

 provided 12 spécimens of Platanista indi and P. gangetica (Pilleri, 1969ûf, 

 1969Z>, 1970fl, 1970Z7). 



Apart from a few anatomical data and scattered ecological observations, 

 little has been known up till now of the composition of the biological Hquids of 

 river odontocetes. Knoll (1932«) investigated blood smears taken from Inia 

 (probably the pregnant $ spécimen referred to in his paper of 1939 in which 

 he also described the examination of an embryo of 46 cm in length). 



The aims of the présent paper are to supplément the inevitably incomplète 

 hematological findings of Knoll for Inia, to investigate the nucleated blood 

 cells of Platanista and to compile a brief survey of the values of some plasmatic 

 (blood urea, total proteinemia and electrophoretic fractions of the plasmapro- 



