Observations upon a fin-whale (Physalus antiquorum, Gray) recently stranded in Pevensey Bay / by William Henry Flower.

  • Flower, William Henry, 1831-1899.
Date:
[1865]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations upon a fin-whale (Physalus antiquorum, Gray) recently stranded in Pevensey Bay / by William Henry Flower. 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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    what concave edge, including their hair-like termination, and 12 inches broad at the base; the whole set was 14 inches broad, the inner 2 inches being made up of four or five subsidiary blades, with straight, parallel sides. These are not mere detachments split off as it were from the inner side of the chief blade; for they are not even placed in a line with it or each other, but often in a line with the intervals between the main blades. The main blades, where they were largest, were set rather less than ^ inch apart; for in a space of 6 inches I counted fourteen blades. Anteriorly they decreased in size, and, in the part encircling the palate in front, consisted of little, isolated, irregularly scattered, very narrow blades, having an oval section, with the long axis in the direction of that of the head ; their length at this part I could not ascertain, as they had all been cut off short. Posteriorly they also diminished, and the whole broad area from which the whalebone grew became covered with closely packed small blades, each ending in a flattened tuft of hair and gradually becoming narower, until at the hindermost part they were resolved into a mat of fine hairs. The horny baleen was readily pulled off from its vascular matrix, a portion of which, removed from behind the middle of the right side of the palate, was obtained for the College Museum. The dense vascular layer (containing much oil) immediately investing the bone is about 1 inch thick; from this spring a series of transverse laminae, exactly corresponding to the whalebone blades, both the large as well as the subsidiary plates. These laminae, in the case of the largest plates, were 1|- inch in depth. They end in a fine fringe of hair-like bodies, about 4 inches long and gradually tapering to a point, which penetrate into the interior of the horny blade, and which serve for secreting the pulp of the whale- bone hairs. The toughness and power of resistance to decomposi- tion of these vascular secreting organs was very surprising. The colour of the baleen was certainly different from what it is usually said to be in the common Fin-Whale. The hairy terminal parts, as seen when looking into the mouth, were, from end to end of the series, of a uniform dirty yellowish white, resembling, in fact, the baleen of Balcenoptera rostrata. The anterior smaller blades were entirely of a creamy white ; and this colour prevailed throughout the whole series, though streaked longitudinally with slate-colour of varying intensity. In the middle and posterior part of the series the latter colour occupied about the outer half of the blade, and was most intense near the edge, so that when seen from without the set had a dark bluish colour. Unfortunately, the decomposed state of the carcase and the hurry with which the operation of cutting up was conducted, added to the inclement state of the weather, prevented me from making any satis- factory observations upon the visceral anatomy. My principal atten- tion was therefore directed to preserving the skeleton in a perfect condition, and observing, as far as opportunity permitted, the natural connexions of the bones. To save the rudimentary pelvic bones from the destruction to which they are almost invariably consigned, was of course my fir.-t care; but here I was nearly too late: these bones, C5]