182 M. F. Cuvier De VHistoire 
perspiring apparatus, consisting of soft, elastic, spiral canals ex- 
tending across the cutis, and having at their mouths a small epider- 
mic valve, which is usually shut. 4lkly, The inhalents or absorbing 
vessels, are extremely fine, smooth, branched, and easily torn, anas- 
tomosing with each other, and forming a net- work in the skin, un- 
derneath the papillae ; they have valves. 5thly, There is the blenno- 
gene apparatus, composed of secretory glands and excretory canals, 
which open among the papillae, situated on the true skin, and pro- 
duce a mucous matter which, in drying, becomes the epidermis ; and, 
Qthly, there is the colouring apparatus, also composed of secreting 
glands and excreting canals, and situated in the upper layers of the 
skin. This is assuredly a far more detailed account of the various 
parts of that wonderful covering the skin, than any we have yet 
happened to meet ; and appears to be alike minute and accurate. 
Leaving these introductory details, our author proceeds to the her- 
bivorous Cetacea, to which he devotes seventy pages, containing much 
valuable information. Nothing, however, occurs as peculiarly re- 
quiring our notice, except some statements regarding the Stellerus of 
Cuvier, concerning which we have a translation of the whole of Stel- 
ler's accurate memoir in the Novae Commentariae Petropololit. As 
this work is not easily procured we regard this as a very valuable 
gift. Copious extracts from the memoir are to be found in Buffon 
and others of our more common books, but the whole will amply re- 
pay a careful perusal. We shall here specify only two particulars ; 
and the structure of the heart shall be the first. Many of our rea- 
ders may remember that an interesting account and drawing of the 
heart of the Dugong were given by the late Sir E. Home in one of 
the volumes of the Philosophical Transactions some fifteen years 
ago. In this paper he states that the peculiarity seen in its heart 
is not to be met with in any other animal. From Steller's account, 
however, we learn that it occurs also in the animal which is now 
known by his name ; thus showing a curious correspondence in these 
two genera of the herbivorous Cetacea. The heart, says Steller, 
does not taper from the base to the apex, there to terminate in a 
single point, but it terminates in two distinct and separate apices, 
corresponding to the two ventricles : the separation reaches to about 
one-third of their extent, at which place they unite, and there re- 
semble the usual appearance exhibited by the organ. 
The other particular we shall advert to regards the mouth and 
the masticating apparatus. It would appear that both lips are 
double, that is, that there are first external and then internal lips. 
When the jaws approximate, the void space they circumscribe is 
