Chapter 2

In February 1834 a young whale of the family of Balæna Whales was caught near the Queensferry, in the Firth of Forth. One much larger had been seen some time before, but escaped. I purchased it for dissection, although I was aware that it was impossible for me, during the hurry of the winter session, to devote much time to it. But I had able assistants (Mr. Henry Goodsir, Mr. Edward Forbes, and my brother), from whom I expected a good deal of aid. Some very beautiful drawings of this whale, made for me by Mr. Edward Forbes and by my brother, are still in my possession.

It was easy to see, by the dorsal fin and by the numerous plaits or folds on the abdominal surface of the throat and chest, before any dissection, that the specimen was a young Balænopterous whale, differing in a great many points from the true whale or _Mysticetus_: for, 1st, the form of the head was entirely different; 2nd, it had a dorsal fin; and, 3rd, occupying the lower surface of the throat and thorax were numerous folds of the integuments. To this class of whales I have been in the habit of giving the name of Rorqual, to distinguish them from the other class of Whalebone Whales, the _Mysticetus_ both _borealis_ and _australis_.

It appears from my notes, that at that time M. G. Cuvier considered the species I now describe as identical with the Great Rorqual I had described about two years previously; but I felt convinced then, as now, that they form distinct species, and in this opinion some continental anatomists seem to coincide.

Being persuaded that there was some inaccuracy in former drawings of the species, I had the specimen suspended and drawn with great care by Mr. Edward Forbes. This position explained the mechanism of the mouth, showing its great size, even in the short Balæna Whales; its great capacity in the _Mysticetus_ had never been doubted.

As to the species, the conclusion I arrived at was, that the specimen belonged to that termed by Fabricius _rostrata_, and that individuals of the species had been seen by John Hunter, Sir James Watson, and Fabricius.

_Measurements._ ft. in.

Total length of the specimen 9 11 Circumference immediately behind the pectoral extremities 5 2 Circumference where the folds or rugæ terminated 4 8-1/4 Ditto of the tail at its origin 1 5-1/2 Length from the back fin to the setting on of the tail 2 10 Length from the snout to the ear 3 0 Length from snout to nostrils 1 4 Length of lower jaw 2 3 Length of arm; inner side 1 3 Length from the angle of the mouth to the arm 1 3 Length from snout to arm 2 9 Length of tail in depth 0 11 Length of back fin at the base 0 8 Height of back fin 0 8-1/2 From top to tip of tail 2 8-1/2 Stomach:--1st compartment, in length 1 2 2nd compartment, in length 1 4 3rd compartment, in length 0 8 4th compartment, in length 0 7 5th compartment, in length 0 3 Spleen weighed 4 ounces; its length was 0 5 Liver, 9 lbs. Small intestines, length 20 0 Large intestines, length 2 4 Kidney, weight 2-1/4 lbs. Brain (including 2 inches of spinal marrow), 3-1/2 lbs. Cerebellum, pons, and 2 inches of spinal marrow, 3/4 lb. Great hemisphere of the brain measured 3 inches in length, in breadth, 6-1/2; at the base, 8 inches. Tuber annulare 0 1-2/8 Olfactory nerves, in length 0 1-1/2 Ditto, breadth 0 2-1/2 Skeleton:--Length of cranium 2 11 Greatest breadth between the orbits 1 3 Length of vertebral column 7 8

When we compare the skeleton of this Rorqual with the Gigantic Rorqual I also dissected, we find as follows:--

_R. giganteus._ _R. minor._

Cervical vertebræ 7 vertebræ 7 Dorsal 15 11 Lumbar, sacral, caudal 43 30 -- -- 65 48

These differences must be specific.

At the extremity of the snout in either jaw there were 8 strong bristles, being the only vestiges of hair found on the external surface. The mouth was of great size; the tongue large and tolerably free, and of a pale rose or vermilion colour. The baleen, where deepest, measured about 4 inches; there were 370 plates on each side; but anteriorly and posteriorly these plates were reduced to mere bristles.

The isthmus faucium allowed the closed hand to pass through it; through this isthmus I do not believe that any water ever passes into the pharynx, unless it be accidentally, as in man. The "spout" of the Whalebone Whale is composed, no doubt, of the pulmonary vapour, and not of any water received into the pharynx from the mouth.

The stomach seemed composed of five compartments externally, but presented only four when laid open, the fifth being manifestly the duodenum. In the intestines no remains of food were found, but abundance of intestinal worms, and a substance strongly resembling the human meconium. There was an ilio-cæcal valve as distinct as in man. In the rectum the folds of the mucous membrane were transverse.

_Organs of Respiration_.--The external nostrils were double; and the cavities of the nostrils provided with the remarkable cartilages and muscular apparatus I discovered and described in the anatomy of the Great Rorqual. In this specimen they were about 4 inches in length, but of as many feet in the large Rorqual. The mode of breathing in the Rorquals does not differ much from that in man, with the exception of the apparatus of the protruding cartilages, which in man are rudimentary.

The _Olfactory Nerves_ were quite as large as in other mammals; and in this respect the Balæna Whales are quite unlike the Dolphins[E].

The trachea communicated, near its upper part, with a sac or pouch; the lungs were each composed of a single lobe. The rings of the trachea were mostly deficient anteriorly. In the heart the foetal arrangements had wholly disappeared. The dura mater seemed divisible into three layers, the external being vascular. A remarkable vascular substance connected with this layer covers the back part of the brain and cerebellum, extending into the spinal canal, and even into the chest. At the base of the brain the vascular plexus was about 2 inches in thickness. It is, as is well known, a sort of erectile tissue, of whose functions we are wholly ignorant. It is not confined to this course, but extends to the neck, and, passing through the foramina intervertebralia, fills the intercostal spaces exterior to the pleura.

There was evidently a canal in the centre of the spinal marrow. Wherever the nerves of the lungs and stomach were traced, they terminated in loops. We did not observe in the Great Rorqual any tracheal pouch like that in the smaller; but it may have escaped notice: if absent in the Great Rorqual, it would be another proof of the distinctness of the species.

The doubts raised by M. St. Hilaire, as to the Whale being a mammal in the true sense of the term, were set aside long ago by an appeal to facts. The young of the Whale tribe suckle like the young of all mammals; nevertheless I showed, in 1834, that the lactiferous glands in the _Balænopteræ_ differ in structure from the same organs in most mammals.

I do not find in my notes anything to add to the description of the Great Rorqual already published in the 'Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh' for 1827, to which I beg leave to refer the reader.

A single remark must be added regarding the nature of the vascular plexus which, in the Cetacea, surrounds the spinal marrow, and extends into the chest. On selecting the artery which seemed to form the plexus, which was, if I rightly recollect, in this instance an intercostal artery, and dissecting it under water, I found, to my surprise, that the artery, so long as I followed it, never gave off any branches, but continued of the same calibre throughout, making innumerable flexuosities or turnings. Thus, on a plexiform mass of this kind being cut across, the first impression is, that a great number of arterial branches or arteries have been divided, whilst in fact the entire plexus seems to be formed of one artery.

As was to be expected of animals so much withdrawn from human observation, there is but little to say on the natural history of the Cetacea properly so called. Their food, no doubt, is various, and seems to have little or no relation to the character of their dentition. The enormous Cachalot, with its vast teeth implanted only in one jaw, is generally understood to prey chiefly on the Cuttlefish. The food of the true Whale, or _Mysticetus_, is well known to be the Clio and other smaller Mollusca, with which certain regions of the ocean abound; the same, or similar, is probably the food of the more active and restless Rorquals, found in both hemispheres. The Dolphins, or Toothed Whales, generally prey, no doubt, on fishes of various kinds; yet, even as regards these, it has been proved by my esteemed friend, the late Mr. Henry Goodsir, that some of the largest, following in the wake of the herring shoals, prey not on these, but on the various microscopic food (the Entomostraca and other marine animals) which I was the first to prove to be the natural food of many excellent gregarious freshwater fish, as the Vendace, Early Loch Leven Trout, the Brown Trout of the Highland and Scottish lakes generally, and of the Herring itself[F]. It is scarcely necessary to add, that the complex apparatus connected with the exterior nostrils of the Dolphins is wholly wanting in the Balæna Whales,--a fact of which M. Cuvier was not aware when he wrote his celebrated Treatise on Comparative Anatomy.

_Appendix_.--Since writing the above, I have received an answer to a