Mise en évidence d'une fonction excrétrice de la peau chez certains cétacés odontocètes et mysticètes

Up to the present there was not believed to be any excretion in the skin of cetaceans because of the absence of sweat and sebaceous glands. It has now been shown that concentrated salty excretion is produced in various cetaceans by numerous epidermal cells dispersed in the whole epidermis. They are not aggregated into glands. Other epidermal cells, likewise scattered in the epidermis, synthetize lipids; this function seems homologous to the sebaceous function of other mammals.