SYKSKI ON THE ORGANS OF REPRODUCTION OF FISHES. 729 



I have found similar formations in almost all eels, usually more devel- 

 oped on the right side than on the left, sometimes fringed, as shown in 

 the illustration accompanying Ercolaui's article, or with long borders, 

 as shown in Professor Maggi's illustration, but always of a structure 

 which is, so to speak, typical of adipose tissues. 



Receutly there appeared in No. 7 for the year 1874, of the German 

 periodical "Die Gartenlaube v , an article, accompanied by an illustration, 

 which represents a pseudo-embryo of an eel of the length of 24 milli- 

 meters, with the head and eyes very large, the belly swollen, and a yel- 

 low yolk-sac, described by Dr. Eberhard, of Rostock, who says that he 

 received it in December last from a student, who again had got it from 

 a woman who had found in the abdominal cavity of an eel a net-like sac 

 containing about a thousand similar embryos. This story reminds one 

 of that told more than a century ago by George Eisner. 



With regard to this matter, Professor Grube, at a session of the Society 

 of Natural History in Breslau (Prussia), expressed himself in the follow- 

 ing manner: — 



" The journals have recently brought us from Rostock the intelligence 

 that an eel had given birth to living young ones. Similar statements 

 have been made in former times, but afterward corrected, to the effect that 

 the parasitic worms which are frequently found in the abdominal cavity 

 or, in the urinary bladder, had been mistaken for young eels. The state- 

 ment, however, which has come to us from Rostock owes its origin to 

 the fact that a really viviparous fish, the Zoarces vivlpants, has been 

 mistaken for an eel, as was proved when the supposed young eel was 

 sent to me by Professor Aubert. Young eels have never been found in 

 the bodies of mother eels." 



During the month of March or April of this year (1874), there appeared 

 in the Miscellanea of the " Neue Ereie Presse " of Vienna, a notice 

 entitled " The reproduction of eels ", where it is stated, " Not unfre- 

 quently persons ignorant of zoology believe that they have found in the 

 bodies of eels young living eels, which, however — as was recently 

 brought out strongly by Professor Miinter, director of the Zoological 

 Museum of Greifswald— when subjected to the critical examination of 

 competent persons were found to be intestinal worms. The above-men- 

 tioned professor observes : ' It is not difficult to find in the eels of the 

 Baltic Sea curled ovaries resembling a drapery ; I myself [Miinter] hav- 

 ing invariably found ovaries in about 3,000 eels examined by me for that 

 purpose. Unfortunately, my numerous observations have never yet been 

 rewarded with the discovery of a male eel — i. e., a milter ; all the eels 

 examined by me with all possible care for a number of years having 

 turned out to be females. I must therefore admit that eels are repro- 

 duced by parthenogenesis, i. e., from non -fecundated eggs, as is the case 

 with some insects. In all probability, the eggs are deposited at the bot- 

 tom of the Baltic Sea from the middle of March to the middle of April, 

 and the young eels, one-half to two inches long, born from such eggs, 

 migrate into fresh water about the beginning of May.'" 



