88 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



[1893. 



A. Outline of frustum of cone representing the mus- 

 culature of body and urosome of common race of Gold- 

 carp. B. Same of long-bodied Japanese race, reared 

 by Dr. Wahl. C. Same of short-bodied Japanese race. 



These tables and 

 the appended dia- 

 gram based upon 

 them, it seems to 

 me, make it tolera- 

 bly certain that 

 there has actually 

 be en a marked 

 degeneration in the 

 relative propor- 

 tional development 

 of the volumes of 

 the musculature of 

 the body aud uro- 

 some or tail in two 

 of the three races 

 examined. Oth e r 

 facts, however, for- 

 tify this conclusion 

 very strongly. The 

 most important 

 being the fact that 

 the vertical rows of 

 scales just behind 

 the abdomen, on the 

 sides of the urosome 

 of the short-bodied 

 race, overlap each 

 other f a r more 

 extensively than do 

 those in the other 

 two. When we 



come to examine the muscular somites underlying these rows of 

 greatly overlapping scales in the short-bodied race, we actually find 

 them markedly shorter than those some distance behind, or those 

 some distance in front of them. This seems to me to prove conclu- 

 sively that there has been actual degeneration of the muscular sys- 

 tem of the body or trunk, and that this degeneration is especially 

 well marked in the short-bodied race. The intestine in the latter is 

 also found to be proportionally longer than in the normal, common, 



