60 
THE NEW YORK AQUARIUM JOURNAL. 
*W. S. 'VV'.AAFtAZ), Editor. 
NEW YORK, MARCH, 1877. 
The New Yoke Aquarium Journal will be pub¬ 
lished monthly at the Aquarium■, corner of l^th 
Street and Broadway, New York Citv. 
Though intended for distribution among the 
patrons of the Aquarium, the Journal will also be 
forwarded for one year, by mail, or delivered by 
carriers to any address on receipt of one dollar, which 
sum is a mere nominal one, since it includes postal 
charge and expense oj mailing and delivery. 
All communications should be addressed to W. 
C. COUP, corner 35 th Street & Broadway. 
The event of the month gone by in the history 
of the New York Aquarium, is the death of the 
whale, and in reply to many inquiries regarding 
the piobable cause, we would direct attention to 
the following report of Doctor Weisse, Professor 
of Anatomy and Surgery in the Medical De¬ 
partment of the University of New York. From 
this report it appears that the animal succumbed 
3-.diSea.se to which 1 fis h arc not alo ne subject 
The examination was a thorough one and the in¬ 
formation obtained through it regarding the ana¬ 
tomical structure of the cetacea will be of per¬ 
manent value. The judgment of Drs. Weisse 
and Arnold respecting the cause of death natu¬ 
rally led to inquiry regarding the reason of the 
pneumonia and the conclusion is reached that 
the pneumonia from which the whale died 
was undoubtedly caused by a sudden lowering 
of the temperature of the water in which the an¬ 
imal was confined at the Xquarium. Some 
weeks ago it became necessary to clean the 
whale tank, and its inmate was hoisted into the 
air while the foul water was drained off and the - 
tank scoured. The new supply of water forced in 
was nearly twenty degrees lower in temperature 
than that to which the whale had been accus¬ 
tomed. Within a few days the animal was no¬ 
ticed to be affected, and it was supposed that 
the quality of the food supplied to it, and which 
consisted solely of live eels, was to blame for the 
change. It was not until the dissection and 
analysis that the real cause of its death was known. 
Sincerely as the management regret the lack of 
experience which resulted in this loss, yet it 
proves to have been not without great gain to 
science, while the public may prepare for the 
early announcement of the arrival of a second, 
and possibly still “bigger” specimen of these 
rare monsters. The following is the official re¬ 
port to which we have alluded : 
REPORT of the examination of the DEAD body of one 
OF THE SPECIES BELUGA. FAMILY DELPHINIDJE, 
ORDER CETACAS, CRABS MAMMALIA. 
Zoologists describe the Beluga dolphin as about 
twelve feet in length and three in diameter; body cyl¬ 
indrical, with somewhat of a hump in the middle of 
the back. The head terminates in a blunt snout; the 
lower jaw presents eight conical teeth on each side; 
the upper jaw nine on each side; the eyes small. The 
pectoral fins are proportionally small to the body. 
The tail fin is bilobed, the lobes triangular in shape, 
converging and united at their bases, with their apices 
widely separated. The tail fin is flat, its greatest di¬ 
ameter from side to side.' It is this peculiarity of the 
position of the tail fin which distinguishes all species 
of the cetacai or whale order of animals from fishes, 
as the tail fin of the latter is always vertical. The 
Beluga is distinguished from othei s of the dolphin 
family by the absence of a dorsal fin and the non-ex¬ 
istence of a groove, separating the bead from the 
snout. These characters approach it more closely to 
the true whale, and hence it has been called white 
whale. The adult Beluga dolphin is of an ivory white, 
the young being spotted with gray. It is native to 
the Arctic seas, but is found along the Atlantic coast 
as far south as the coast of Labrador. The specimen 
of Beluga dolphin under discussion was found to he a 
female, of a light slate color; head in good proportion 
to the body; snout blunt, with no groove separating it 
from the rest of the head; eyes very small; blow hole 
single at the top of the head; slight hump or rise of 
body at the middle of the back; fins at the sides 
of the thorax, being rudimentary upper extremities ;. 
the tail fins flat, bi-lobed, each lobe triangular, uni¬ 
ted at their bases, and the apices widely separated, 
the tail thus forming the shape of a V. The animal 
was found to measure nine feet eight inches from 
snout to tail tips, three feet between the tips of fins; 
body breadth twenty inches; head breadth thirteen 
inches. As the body had been injected January 28, 
1877, with a strong solution of chloride of zinc, all 
the tissues were found in a perfect state of preserva¬ 
tion, not emitting the slightest unpleasant odor. On 
removing the skin which, with subjacent fat, was an 
inch and a half thick, the muscles were found red and 
1 healthy looking, the sternum being Carefully removed, 
isvgra. w.er o ,j&posetij_ W, ;dium 
and pleura, as also the heart, presented no evidences 
of disease having existed during life. The lungs, 
weighing twenty-two pounds, presented the appear¬ 
ance of a lung that had been affected by chronic ca¬ 
tarrhal pneumonia. On opening the abdomen the 
contained viscera were found in a perfect state of pre¬ 
servation, as though the animal had been dead but an 
hour. The liver weighed nineteen pounds. The four 
stomachs, the fifty-seven feat of intestines, the pan¬ 
creas, the kidneys (two pounds each), the generative 
organs, were all free from any lesions of previous dis¬ 
ease; the spleen, however, presented some evidences 
of previous disease which were unimportant. The 
cause of the death of the animal was pneumonia in¬ 
volving both lungs, and it had existed some time be¬ 
fore death. The anatomical differences between the 
organs of the animal under examination and man 
were all recognized, as follows:—Four distinct stom¬ 
achs, the absence of a gall bladder, and the non-exis¬ 
tence of the ciecal portion of the intestines, the pe¬ 
culiar and beautifully lobulated structures of the kid¬ 
neys, and the double-horned uterus. The further 
dissection of the body was left for subsequent exami¬ 
nation. Specimens of the organs were kept for pre- 
*sarvation in the Museum of the Medical Department 
of the University ’of the City of New York and the 
American Veterinary College respectively. The skel¬ 
eton will be mounted for preservation. 
Our grateful acknowledgements are due to 
Captain Mortimer, lor certain recent valua¬ 
ble contributions to the Aquarium. Foremost 
among these are the Salamanders, exhibited in 
the glass case on microscopic tables. In addi¬ 
tion to these interesting reptiles are the English 
roach, fresh water tank 20, and several rare star 
fish and sea urchins, which were dredged from a 
depth of thirty fathoms, off the coast of Dela¬ 
ware. 
The Exhibition by Mr, Starr, 
Among the recent attractions of the Aquarium 
the exhibition of animalcule forms on the screen 
by the aid of the oxy-hydrogen microscope, can 
but engage the interest of the visitor. Mr. Starr 
is one whose long experience in this field has 
rendered him without a rival in the work for 
which he is engaged. Not content with granting 
to the visitors a full display of the visible marine 
forms, Mr. Coup has supplemented them by af¬ 
fording an opportunity to study the “ invisible” 
and if, in the contemplation of the larger forms, 
abundant theme for study have been afforded, 
the still greater wonders which the advances oi 
optical science have brought to light, will be 
found to far exceed all others yet displayed. 
A DEATH BLOW. 
BY JOSEPHINE POLLARD. 
“Dear me !” said the Whale, as he flapped his tail; 
“Dear me ! and my goodness gracious ! 
I’d give a good deal for a hearty meal— 
I’ve an appetite most voracious. 
I swim and I dive, but, as I’m alive, 
So small is my present cupboard, 
It is hard to find any food to my mind, 
And only for this I blubbered. 
“ A coup de main I must use, ’tis plain, 
Or else there will be a riot ; 
This Aquarium to an end will come 
If they don’t attend to my diet. 
The Cod in my jaws Hi e.oddP - 
The Bass, and the Perch I’ll not leave in the lurch, 
Or nod at the Bull-head’s noddle. 
“I’ll raise a fuss with the Octopus 
And the Hip-hip-hop so lazy, 
And the great flat Skate shall search for bait 
Until it is nearly crazy. 
The Crabbed crew and the Mollusks, too. 
I’ll grind to the finest powder ; 
And whatever I choose I’ll take and use 
In making a nice Fish Chowder. 
“As a coup de grace I will break the glass 
That renders my spirit frantic, 
Till the fishes all, both great and small. 
Shall think they are in the Atlantic. 
With my fin I will scratch an official dispatch 
In language so sharp and aquatic 
That the Seals shall declare, with a comical stare, 
That the Whale is quite mial- o-dramatic.’’ 
Then off with a plunge, and a snort, and a lunge, 
And various other gyrations, 
He circled around in his narrow bound 
And wept for his lost relations ; 
Till his brain grew wild, his temper oiled, 
And his Whalebone interlining 
Began to contract—’tis a solemn fact !— 
And hindir the creature from dining. 
All over the whale began to turn pale, 
With hunger and cramps to vex it, 
And his coup de grace —it came to pass— 
Was rather a hasty exit! 
When the big Fish died the Crocodile cried 
Great tears for man’s inhumanity ; 
Said it was a disgrace and a very clear case 
Ot Emotional insanity ! 
