84 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



X. Hunt for the male eel and its discovery by Syrski, 



The history of the search for the female of the eel having been given, 

 for the most part, in a translation of the work of Dr. Jacob.y, it seems 

 appropriate to quote the same author concerning the search for the 

 male eel, which, though much shorter, is none the less interesting. 



In the dissertation of Hohubaum-Hornschuch, published in 1842, the 

 opinion was expressed that certain cells found by the author in the 

 ovaries which differed from the egg cells by their form and contents, 

 should be regarded as the siiermary cells of the eel, and that the eel 

 should be regarded as hermaphrodite. Six years later Schliiser i>re- 

 sented an interesting dissertation upon the sexes of lampreys and eels 

 in which he pronounced these opinions of Hobnbaum-Hornschuch to 

 be erroneous, and expressed the oi^inion that the male eel must be ex- 

 tremely rare, or that it was dilierent, perhaps, from the female. From 

 this time up to the beginning of 1870 a male eel was never seen, nor do 

 we find any opinions expressed concerning the form of the male of the 

 eel or its reproductive organs.* 



According to Eobin in 18-46, George Louis Duvernoy (Cuvier, An 

 atomic Comparee, ed. 2, 1848, tome viii, p. 117) described the ruftie-tube 

 tyi^e of the testis of the lampreys and eels, with the free margin fes- 

 tooned in lobules, shorter to the right than to the left, like the ovaries, 

 &c. He added: "At the breeding season, we perceive in it an innumer- 

 able quantity of granulations, or small spermatic capsules, the rounded 

 form of which has often led to their being confounded with the ovules, 

 at least in the eels, in which, in reality, these capsules are nearly of the 

 same size as the ovules, but the latter are distinguished by their oval 

 form." The ovules are spherical, and not oval; but the other facts are 

 fundamentally correct. It is also in error that Duvernoy adds (p. 133) : 

 "The eels and the lampreys have no deferent canal, any more than an 

 oviduct. Like the ova the semen ruptures the capsules in which it has 

 collected and diffuses itself in the abdominal cavity, whence it is ex- 

 pelled in the same way as in the ova." 



By some droll coincidence the university of Bologna aud, soon after, 

 that of Pavia, were again prominent participants in the eel tournament. 

 At the meeting of the Bologna Academy, December 28, 1871, Prof. 

 G. B. Ercolaui read a pajier ui^on the perfect hermaphroditism in the 

 eel.t 



Fourteen days later Prof. Balsamo Crivelli and L. Maggi read a 

 detailed and elaborate paper upon the "true organs of generation in 



* Robin, Comptes Rendus, 1881, p. 383. 



t Jacoby states that in a paper by Eathke, published in 1838 in the Archivfur naturge- 

 scMchfe, he remarked, " I expect soon to be able to say something concerning the male 

 organs of the eel." 



It would be very interesting to know whether in the papers left by this skillful in- 

 vestigator there may not have been recorded some valuable observations concerning 

 the male eel. 



