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ANATOMY OF THE PORBEAGLE SHARK, 

 (SQVALUS COENUBICUS.) 



BY T. SrENCER COBBOLD, ESQ., M. V., EDINBURGH J 

 Senior President of the Royal Medical Society. 



The dissection of any of the larger species of the Shark tribe, {Plagiostomcs,) 

 cannot fail to be interesting in a teleological point of view, ^Yhether we confine 

 our attention to particular systems only, such as the nervous, vascular, digestive, 

 and reproductive, or, when taking a more extended view of the subject, we 

 trace out in full detail the relations of structure and function of the entire 

 fabric, as compared with that of other animals. 



In the present paper I propose to record ve}y briefly a few of the more 

 prominent anatomical peculiarities, as indicated by a careful dissection of one 

 of the above-named species, a large number of which were captured last winter 

 by the fishermen of the T'lrth of Forth, during the Herring season."^ 



Commencing our manipulation by removing almost the whole of the left 

 wall of the abdominal cavity, we at once bring into view the liver^ which in 

 the present species is divided into two nearly equal halves or lohes, enclosing 

 between them all the remaining abdominal viscera, strictly so called. Fig. 1. 

 gives us a faithful notion of the position of this viscus; while its obvious size 

 indicates in no small degree its relative importance in the economy of digestion 



and assimilation.! 



Our next step was to remove en masse the entire abdominal contents, so 

 that, as represented in Fig. 2, we have still retained all the parts in situ; the 

 left lobe of the liver has been turned on one side, and we have now exposed 

 more fully those organs, the manifestations of whose functions illustrate very 



* An extended verbal account of this dissection was made to the I'liysiological Society of 

 Edinburgh, December 20th., 18i>l. 



f These illustrations are copies of drawings made by the author from the dissections. 



Explanation of Fig. 1. — (a,) right lobe of liver; (b,) portion of left lobe diawn out from 

 under the other viscera; (c,) the claspers. 



