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XII. On the structure and use of the suhmaxillary odoriferous gland 
in the genus Crocodilus. JBjy Thomas Bell, Esq. F. L. S. G. S. 
Communicated by Sir Everard Home, Bart. V.P.R. S. 
Read March i, 1827. 
Few subjects connected with comparative anatomy and 
physiology have received less of careful and minute investi¬ 
gation than the structure and functions of those glands which 
produce anomalous secretions. The structure of those general 
organs, which are adapted to the functions of whole classes of 
animals, has, in all their modifications, been again and again 
examined and described ; and in many instances little perhaps 
remains to be ascertained. But with regard to those secre¬ 
tions which belong to individual species, or to smaller groups, 
and which are formed only for the performance of a function 
required by their peculiar and exclusive habits, comparatively 
little information has hitherto been acquired. A detailed 
examination of each individual structure will be necessary to 
the establishment of any correct general views, or accurate 
classification of them ; and every discovery, even of an 
isolated fact, exclusive of what individual interest it may 
possess, becomes of increased importance, from its possible 
relations to other analogous structures. In order to illustrate 
the truth of this remark, it is only necessary to refer to the 
laborious and profound investigations of Sir Everard Home, 
whose Papers in the Philosophical Transactions have so much 
