of Edinburgh, Session 1875-76. 
103 
2. A Further Contribution to the Placentation of the Cetacea 
( Monodon Monoceros). By Professor Turner. 
In the year 1871, I read before this Society a memoir on the 
Gravid Uterus of Orca gladiator , in which I discussed the placenta- 
tion of the Cetacea. This memoir was published in the Transac- 
tions for that year. On the present occasion I purpose describing 
the placenta in a Cetacean genus in which it has not hitherto been 
examined. 
In the month of December 1875 I received, through the inter- 
mediation of my friend Mr C. W. Peach, from Mr John 
Maclauchlan, the chief Librarian and Curator to the Free Library, 
Dundee, a cask containing the gravid uterus of a Narwhal (. Monodon 
Monoceros ), which had been procured by the captain of the Dundee 
whaling steamer “Erik.” The uterus had been preserved in strong 
brine, and was in good condition for anatomical examination. 
The uterus was two-horned, and contained a foetus 5 feet 5 inches 
long in the left cornu. The gravid horn measured 7 feet 4 inches 
along its great curvature ; the non-gravid, 4 feet. The girth of the 
gravid horn, at its thickest part, was 4 feet 4 inches. The length 
of the corpus uteri was 1 foot ; that of the vagina, 1 foot 8 inches. 
The os was occluded by an extremely viscid mucus. 
The uterine cornua were opened into by a longitudinal incision 
along the greater curvatures. The uterine wall was comparatively 
thin, and the chorion was closely adherent to its mucous lining. 
By an incision through the chorion, along the greater curvature of 
the gravid horn, the sac of the amnion was opened into and the foetus 
exposed. The foetus lay with its back in relation to the greater 
curvature of the cornu, its belly to the lesser curvature, its head 
close to the corpus uteri; whilst its caudal end was directed to the 
narrow end of the horn, but did not reach to within two feet of the 
Fallopian tube. The tail was curved forwards under the hinder 
part of the ventral surface of the foetus. The pectoral flipper was 
directed backwards parallel to the long axis of the body. The 
umbilical cord was 3 feet long, spirally twisted, and bifurcating 
where it reached the sac of the allantois. The amnion formed an 
immense bag, which reached to 5 inches from the free end of the 
gravid horn of the chorion, but it did not extend into that part of 
