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XXXVIII .Obfervations on the Structure and Oeconomy of Whales. 
By John Hunter, Efq. F, R. S. ; communicated by Sir Tofeph 
Banks, Bart . P. R. S. 
HE animals which inhabit the fea are much lefs 
known to us than thofe found upon land ; and the 
oeconomy of thofe with which we are belt acquainted is 
much lei's underlfood : we are, therefore, too often obliged to 
reafon from analogy where information fails; which mud; 
probably ever continue to be the cafe, from our unfitnefs to 
purfue our refearches in the unfathomable waters. 
This unfitnefs does not arife from that part of our oeconomy 
on which life and its functions depend ; for the tribe of ani- 
mals which is to be the fubjeft of this Paper, has, in that 
refpeft, the fame oeconomy as man, but from a difference in 
the mechanifm by which our progredive motion is produced. 
The anatomy of the larger marine animals, when they are 
procured in a proper date, can be as well afcertained as that of 
any others ; dead drufture being readily invedigated. But even 
fuch opportunities too feldom occur, becaufe thofe animals are 
only to be found in didant feas, which no one explores in pur- 
fuit of natural hidory ; neither can they be brought to us alive 
from thence, which prevents our receiving their bodies in a 
Read June 28, 1787. 
date 
