Prof. KoUiker on the minute Structure of the Bones of Fishes, 67 



February 24, 1859. — Sir Benjamin C. Brodie, Bart., President, in 



the Chair. 



"On the Different Types in the Microscopic Structure of the 

 Skeleton of Osseous Fishes." By A. Kolliker, Professor of Ana- 

 tomy and Physiology in the University of Wiirzburg. 



After having been occupied for several months with observations 

 on the minute structure of the bones of fishes, I now take the liberty 

 to present the results of my studies to the Royal Society. 



The principal fact which I have to mention is, that a great many 

 genera of osseous fshes possess no bone-corpuscles, radiated or fusi- 

 form, in their skeleton, and therefore no real osseous tissue. That 

 there exist fish-bones without bone-corpuscles must have been long 

 known in England to those who have collections of microscopic pre- 

 parations of the hard tissues of animals, as Owen, Tomes, Williamson, 

 Quekett, and others ; but nobody seems to have mentioned the fact 

 before Williamson, Quekett, Dr. Mettenheimer of Frankfort, and 

 myself*. In the year 1850 Professor Williamson pointed out the 

 absence of bone-corpuscles from the bones of the Cod, Haddock, 

 Perch, Plaice, Pike, and various other fish, distinguishing them in 

 this respect from the bones of the Eel, in which such corpuscles are 

 abundant f; in 1853 I made known J that the bones of Leptocephalus 

 and Helmichthys contain no trace of bone-corpuscles ; a year later, 

 Mettenheimer showed that the same was true of the bones of Tetra- 

 gonurus Cumeri%\ and in 1855 Quekett mentions, in the second 

 volume of the * Histological Catalogue of the College of Surgeons of 

 England,' fishes belonging to eighteen genera, in the bones of which 

 he had not succeeded in finding bone -corpuscles — viz. Vogmarus 

 islandicus, Lophius piscatorius, Gadus morrhua, Ephippus, Sparus, 

 Trigla cuculus, Belone vulgaris, Pleuronectes platessa, Trachinus 

 vipera, Orthagoriscus mola, Exocoetus, Scarus, Esox, Sphyrcena 

 barracuda, Tetrapturus, Zeus faber, Percafluviatilis, Gobiofluvia- 

 tilis. But, notwithstanding these most valuable observations, little 

 or no progress seems to have been made in the more general treat- 

 ment of this matter, as is best shown by the * Comparative Histology' 

 of Leydig (1857), in which (p. 157) the Leptocephalidce, Tetrago- 

 nurus, and Orthagoriscus are the only cases mentioned, in which the 

 radiated bone-corpuscles are wanting. 



On commencing a series of more extended investigations into the 

 minute structure of fish-bones, in October last, I found that the 

 genera which possess real osseous tissue are rather scarce, whilst, 



* Since this communication was read to the Society, Dr. Sharpey has directed 

 my attention to a statement by the late Professor J. Miiller, to the effect that 

 in the Pike and many other fish the bones are destitute of bone-corpuscles. 

 This statement occurs in MUller's Annual Report of the progress of Anatomical 

 and Physiological Science in 1835, and is repeated in his addition to the work of 

 Miescher, " De Inflammatione Ossium, eorumque Anatome Generali," Berlin, 

 1836, p. 269. 



t Phil. Trans. 1851, p. 693. % Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool. iv. p. 361. 



§ Anat.-histol. Untersuch. ti. d. Tetragonums Cuvieri, in den Abh. d. Senken- 

 berg. Gesellschaft, i. p. 241, 



5* 



