Ternate, February, 1858.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] This MS. work was never intended for publication, and therefore was not written with care.—C. D. 1858.
[B] I can see no more difficulty in this, than in the planter improving his varieties of the cotton plant.—C. D. 1858.
Contributions to the Anatomy and Natural History of the Cetacea. By R. Knox, Esq., M.D., F.R.S.E. Communicated by the Secretary.
[Received Oct. 6, 1857.]
Part I. The Dolphins.
The dissection of the Cetacea, and more especially of the larger kinds, is attended with great difficulty, and not unfrequently entails heavy expenses on those who attempt it. For these reasons I have thought that zoologists might be pleased to have, even now, submitted to them the results of numerous dissections made many years ago, when, not stinted in means, and having the aid of excellent assistants, I attempted the dissection even of the gigantic Arctic Rorqual, the largest, perhaps, of all living beings. Certain of the details have been from time to time laid before the public, but in an extremely scattered and incomplete form, and without the illustrations (artistic), which explain so much better than any verbal description. The greater part is still before me in manuscript. It is my intention in the following contributions to endeavour to connect them together, adding to those already published many facts I find in MSS. The original drawings, made by my brother and by Messrs. Edward Forbes and Henry Goodsir (who were at that time my students and assistants), are still in my possession.