2 
figures, the size, number and arrangement of which were, how- 
ever, very different in various individuals. The vast majority of 
these circles had a diameter of 0.5—1 centim. (fig. 10), many 
were, however, considerably larger, some even up to 1.5 centim. 
The number of pores in each circle varies, according to the size, 
from about 20 to 50, and the diameter of the pores is on the 
average 0.16 mm. Most of the circles are unbroken, but incomplete 
circles are also found, likewise circles which transect each other or 
are almost concentric, and, furthermore, isolated pores here and 
there. If the stratum corneum be drawn olf, which is very easily 
done, one sees on its under-surface conical elevations placed in a 
circle (fig. 11) which elevations correspond to the pores on the sur- 
face of the skin and have been sunk into the softer stratum muco- 
sum, on the upper side of which one finds the grooves from which 
they have been drawn out. “ 
Similar circular-placed pores are mentioned by Bennett^) in 
the “BlackFish“ of the South Seas, which is also a Caaing Whale 
(Globiocephaliis sp.)^). Bennett describes these formations in the 
following manner: “On the head and chiefly around the lips the 
skin is marked with many scattered circles, each the size of a six¬ 
pence and composed of a single row of small, depressed dots which 
would appear to mark a disposition to the formation of vibrissae.“ 
Regarding the significance of these markings Fjelstrup States as 
follows: “How far these pores as already suggested by Bennett 
and more closely precised by Weber^), may really be taken as a 
kind of hair rudiments or empty hair follicles, I am, in any case 
at the present moment, unable to determine.“ 
Van Bambeke^) approves of Fjelstrup’s caution: “Je ne puis 
qu’approuver cette réserve, tout en faisant remarquer que, dans 
F. D. Bennett: Narrative of a whaling voyage round the globe, from 
the year 1833 to 1836. London, 1840. 
This Caaing Whale from the Southern hemisphere is possibly identical 
with the Globiocephalus melas \ in any case they are closely related. 
Fjelstrup is of the opinion that the indentations in the skin arranged 
in rows at the angle of the mouth of an adult Balænoptera Sibbaldii, 
mentioned by Max Weber (Studien iiber Saugethiere, 1886, p. 38\ are 
the same as his circular pore figures in the Globiocephalus melas. 
Van Bambeke: Sur des follicules rencontrés dans l’épiderme de la 
machoire supérieure chez le Tursiops tursio. Bruxelles 1888. 
