XII. On the structure and use of the submaxillary odoriferous gland in the genus crocodilus

Abstract

Few subjects connected with comparative anatomy and physiology have received less of careful and minute investigation than the structure and functions of those glands which produce anomalous secretions . The structure of those general organs, which are adapted to the functions of whole classes of animals, has, in all their modifications, been again and again examined and described; and in many instances little perhaps remains to be ascertained. But with regard to those secretions which belong to individual species, or to smaller groups, and which are formed only for the performance of a function required by their peculiar and exclusive habits, comparatively little information has hitherto been acquired. A detailed examination of each individual structure will be necessary to the establishment of any correct general views, or accurate classification of them; and every discovery, even of an isolated fact, exclusive of what individual interest it may possess, becomes of increased importance, from its possible relations to other analogous structures. In order to illustrate the truth of this remark, it is only necessary to refer to the laborious and profound investigations of Sir Everard Home, whose Papers in the Philosophical Transactions have so much extended our information on some of the most intricate subjects of comparative anatomy and physiology— the result principally of a minute examination of individual and peculiar structures. I make no apology therefore for the following short communication, to which the foregoing observations are, to a certain extent, applicable. It has long been known, that beneath the lower jaw of the alligator and crocodile, there is situated, on each side, a gland, the office of which is to secrete an unctuous substance, having a strong musky odour: but although anatomists have not been ignorant of the existence of such a gland, our information has hitherto rested here, whilst its structure, and the apparatus connected with it, appear not to have been investigated, nor has any probable object of such a formation been suggested. In a careful examination however of this remarkable organ, which I made about two years since, I discovered a peculiarity of structure, which, as far as I have learnt, is without a parallel in the glandular system of animals, unless, as Sir Everard Home has kindly suggested, the muscle, which is described by Dr. Russell as governing the poison gland in serpents, may be considered as in some measure analogous. The description of this structure, with which repeated subsequent dissections have made me more particularly acquainted, I now have the honour to submit to the Royal Society.