Volume 1

Descriptive and illustrated catalogue of the physiological series of comparative anatomy contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London / [By R. Owen].

  • Royal College of Surgeons of England. Museum
Date:
1833-40
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Descriptive and illustrated catalogue of the physiological series of comparative anatomy contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London / [By R. Owen]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    plate of whalebone : the middle part shows the distance at which the plates of whalebone stand from each other: and the upper part the white substance in which they are fixed, and also the vascular bases from which they grow. 321. A perpendicular section of a single plate of whalebone from the Piked Whale ; showing the mode of growth of the plates, and of the interme- diate white substance. The middle layer of the plate is formed on a conical pulp that may be seen passing up the centre of the plate: the termination of this layer forms the hair. Portions of the intermediate white substance have been successively detached, showing that laminae are continued from that substance along the sides of the middle layer, and that these laminae form the firm outer layer of the whalebone. 322. A perpendicular section of a single plate of whalebone, near the root, with part of the outer layer turned back, to show the inner layer, composed of detached fibres from the very commencement of the plate; which fibres being inclosed between the more compact outer layers, form, where these cease to extend, the free fringed extremity of the whalebone. 323. A perpendicular section of several plates of whalebone, with the interme- diate substance and vascular nidus, from the upper jaw of a young spe- cimen of the Great Whale (Balsena Mysticetus, Linn.). The latter part has been reflected from the plates, and the pulps which secrete the fibres of the fringe have been drawn out from their cavities at the roots of the plates. A white bristle is introduced into one of these cavities, and black bristles into vessels which are ramifying in the vascular nidus of the whalebone. This preparation also shows the disposition and relative proportions of the plates of whalebone, as described in the introductory paragraph ; from which disposition it results that only the fringed extre- mities of the whalebone plates are visible from the inside of the mouth of the Whale; the whole concavity of the palate appearing to be beset with coarse rigid hairs or bristles, which explains a long-contested passage in Aristotle, who, speaking of the Great Whale (^vo-tjkjjtoc), says, “ Se Kai o juiKTTt/crjToc oSovrac, fxt]v iv tw OTOfiaTi ovk eyei, rpiyac be opoiae N 2
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