Account of the dissection of a young rorqual, or short whalebone whale, (the Balaena rostrata of Fabricius) : with a few observations on the anatomy of the foetal Mysticetus / by Dr. Knox.

  • Robert Knox
Date:
[1834?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Account of the dissection of a young rorqual, or short whalebone whale, (the Balaena rostrata of Fabricius) : with a few observations on the anatomy of the foetal Mysticetus / by Dr. Knox. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    From snout to fin, .... Feet. o Inches. y From fin to tail, C 3 Tail in depth, 0 11 Dorset fin at base, 0 3 Length of ditto, 0 84 Breadth of tail from tip to tip, 2 84 From back fin to fissure of the tail, 2 10 Thickness of tail at its origin ... 174 Circumference of the trunk at the termination of the plicae and folds, .... 4 8 SKELETON. Length of cranium, . . 2 11 Greatest breadth between the orbits, j 3 Length of lower jaw, .... . . . 2 4 Length of vertebral column, . 7 8 Specific differences in the skeletons of the nailer, or Rostrata of Fabricius. greater Rorqual, and the GREAT RORQUAL. VBRTRBR*. Cervical. Dorsal. Lumbar, Sacral, and Caudal. 7 13 43 = (;3 SMALL RORQUAL. VERTEBRA Cervical. Dorsal. Lumbar. Sacral and Caudal. 7 11 13 17 = 48 P. S—Since the above remarks were sent to press, the author finds, by a late number of the Institute,” just put into his hands, that at the request of M. St Hilaire, His Excellency the Minister of the In- terior of France had directed information to be sent to Paris of the stranding of any of the Whale tribe on the coasts. Accordingly, in a short time, two distinct notices reached Paris of the stranding of a great number of the “ Dolphin group ” or genus, and the question as to their suckling their young was set at rest immediately, by its being proved that such was the case. In respect to the trouble taken by the French naturalists, and so kindly by the Government, to set at rest this question in natural history, the author is of opinion that the whole is a work of supererogation as to the Dolphin group o the Octaceac, since the fact of their being mammiferous had been proved long ago ; not so, however, with regard to true or Whalebone Whales; but the author hopes that the preceding remarks prove them also to be mammiferous.
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