Natural-Historical Collections^ W9 



with apparent justice, that " the type of the genital organs is hermaphroditical^ 

 that is, there are fundamentally male and female organs in the same being, or, ori- 

 ginally in all embryos, elementary yet distinct parts, out of which both sets of or- 

 gans may be formed by developement ;" and when, in hermaphroditical animals, 

 both male and female organs are developed, it is merely a return to the original 

 type. 



According to these views, the essentially male organs are the testicles, the vasa 

 deferentia, the vesiculas seminales, the prostrate, Cowper's glands, and the penis ; 

 and the essentially female organs are the ovaries, the Fallopian tubes, the uterus, 

 the round ligaments of the uterus, the vagina, and the mammae. 



In addition to these principles with respect to the generative system, which we 

 have previously exposed, Dr. Knox has advanced a most ingenious application of 

 the new law for discovering the nature of rudimentary organs, by determining 

 the original type of construction, to the respiratory organs ; — a theory of the re- 

 spiratory organs, showing them to be at once pulmonary and branchial. 



" As in some animals," says the author, " both the male and female organs are 

 ibund together, so also do we find in some animals two structures for the oxy- 

 genation of the blood co-existent, or developed one after the other, as in the tadpole. 



" It is hard to conceive how, if these two organs were identical, as is supposed, 

 they could exist at the same time in one individual, which they assuredly do in 

 the Proteus and Syren. Here the principles, on which hermaphrodism has been 

 explained, may be applied, and we may therefore say, that the type of the respi~ 

 ratory organs is double ; it is both pulmonary and branchial ; the elements of 

 both sets of organs are found in all vertebral animals. 



" From this it follows, that lungs and gills, although analogous, are not identical 

 organs, and that they can no more be changed into each other, than male into 

 female organs. 



" Admitting this, we can now explain certain bones in fishes which have never 

 been exactly determined ; these are the bones which support the gills, called by 

 some ribs, and by others hyoid bones. Lungs and giUs are analogous, but not 

 identical organs, the elements out of which the gills are formed, are not the same 

 as those out of which the lungs are ; therefore, when we analyze the structure of 

 the gills, and find the branchial arches, we say that they are organs belonging 

 essentially to the gills. But as the type of the respiratory organs is both lungs 

 and gills, we must expect to meet, in some of those in which the lungs only are 

 developed, with elements more or less remarkable, of the gills. Now such are 

 the hyoid bones, wliich are in truth the branchial arches." 



Queries respecting the Natural History of the Salmon, Sea- Trout, Bull' 

 Trout, Herling, ^-c. 



The perplexing history of the habits of the salmon, and its congeners, the subject 

 of so much discussion amongst naturalists, has become an object of inquiry with 

 Sir William Jardine, who is at present engaged in the preparation of a splendi4 

 work on the Natural History of British fishes. The following Queries have been 

 handed to us by this gentleman for insertion in our pages, and we earnestly re- 

 quest our friends and readers to exert themselves in any way that may occur to 

 them in procuring answers from individuals practically connected with the fish- 

 erics, or possessed of other means of acquiring information. — Ed. 



The value of the Salmon Fisheries in Great Britain has decreased so much of 

 late years, and particularly in the North of England, and South of Scotland, that 

 a remedy for it, independent of its interest as a difficult and unsolved question ill 

 Natural History, will become of no little importance to proprietors. The follow- 

 ing Queries are proposed, with the view and with the hope of gaining some in- 

 formation upon the natural history and economy of this valuable species. It i$ 

 only by arriving at a correct knowledge of its various habits, and those of thf 



