Dissection of a spermaceti whale and three other cetaceans / by J.B.S. Jackson.

  • J. B. S. Jackson
Date:
[1845]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dissection of a spermaceti whale and three other cetaceans / by J.B.S. Jackson. 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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    overlap, the intervening mucous membrane being traversed longitudinally by very numerous fine lines. Along the first few feet of the intestine the surface was generally smooth, but there were a number of folds of mucous membrane which might properly be called valvulse conniventes, not being con- tinued entirely across the intestine ; these were about one inch apart, and § inch in width midway. About 40 feet from the termination of the intestine, the valves became smaller and more irregular, and soon the mucous surface assumed a very peculiar appearance, the change, however, being gradual; the portion opposite the mesentery continued thin and nearly or quite smooth, whilst the remainder, consisting of one half or two-thirds of the whole intestine, was extremely thick and rugous, the rugae being very broad and mostly transverse, though many were longitudinal; no mucous follicles were seen here, nor indeed in any part of the intestine, except a few very small ones in the rectum, and yet it was impossible not to regard this as a glandular structure, analogous, perhaps, to the Peyerian ; the mucous membrane throughout the last 20 or 25 feet was smooth. Finally the rectum opened in the sulcus which gave outlet to the vagina. The liver was a broad, flat, very regular organ, divided into two lobes, of which the left was decidedly the largest, differing therein from each of the other specimens, and from what has been generally observed in the cetaceans; the right measured 24 inches in length, the left 25, and the whole organ trans- versely 34 inches ; thickness 2 inches ; no trace of a third lobe. Color and structure not remarkable. Gall-bladder wanting, as usual, in the cetaceans ; duct, near the liver, reticulated upon the inner surface, and measured 1| inches transversely. The spleen was a soft, dark red organ, somewhat lobulated, of a flattened, oval form, and about 10 inches in length ; also a second, about an inch in diameter, and connected frith the first by cellular membrane ; several of these are sometimes found in the cetacea, and I am not sure that there were not others in the present case.
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