XXIII A Carcharodon-Head Dissected

Abstract

I have no doubt that a long and uninterrupted account of observations on muscles would be distasteful to the reader; accordingly, since variety is the spice of life, I have decided to add to what has gone before material which should provide an opportunity to review various isolated observations. And I could have wished for no other item more suitable than that which presented itself to me as I was dissecting the head of a shark. Actually the most Serene Grand Duke of Tuscany, on being notified from Livorno that an unusually large fish had been caught some miles from the port, ordered that the head should be brought to Florence and handed over to me for dissection. This allowed me to observe a number of things that clarify our knowledge of the parts of animals, which I wished to set down here illustrated by various other observations.