. Animal physiology. Physiology, Comparative; Physiology, Comparative. ABSENCE OP TEETH IN THE WHALE. WHALEBONE. 149. Fig. 97—Skull of Boar. food. Animal flesh (the most easily digested of all substances) needs but to be cut in small pieces; but the hard envelopes of beetles and other insects must be broken up; and the tough woody structure of the grasses, and the dense coverings of the seeds and fruits on which the herbivorous animals are supported, must be ground down. The incisors and canines are chiefly employed among carnivorous animals, for the purpose of seiz- ing their living prey, and
. Animal physiology. Physiology, Comparative; Physiology, Comparative. ABSENCE OP TEETH IN THE WHALE. WHALEBONE. 149. Fig. 97—Skull of Boar. food. Animal flesh (the most easily digested of all substances) needs but to be cut in small pieces; but the hard envelopes of beetles and other insects must be broken up; and the tough woody structure of the grasses, and the dense coverings of the seeds and fruits on which the herbivorous animals are supported, must be ground down. The incisors and canines are chiefly employed among carnivorous animals, for the purpose of seiz- ing their living prey, and are never deficient in them; but they are less required in herbi- vorous animals; and either or both kinds are not unfrequently deficient. Sometimes, however, they are not only present, but are largely developed, serving as weapons of attack and defence ; as in the Boar (Fig. 97). 184. There are a few Mammalia which do not possess teeth. This is the case with the common Whale, in which they are replaced by an entirely different structure. From the upper jaw there hang down into the mouth a number of plates of a fibrous substance, to which we give the name of whalebone, though it is really analogous to the gum of other animals. The fibres of these plates are separate at their free extremities, and are matted, as it were, together, so as to form a kind of sieve. Through this sieve water is drawn, in enormous quantities, whenever the Whale is in want of food ; and in this manner it strains out, as it were, the minute gelatinous ani- mals upon which it lives,—such as the lit- tle Pteropods (§. 122) and MedusEe (§. 130), which abound in the Fig. 90. F,g. 98,-Skull ok Whale. Seas it inhabits. The Whalebone. water thus taken in is. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Carpenter, William Benjamin,
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