222 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES PISH COMMISSION. 



yS.-OBSERVATIOIVS OIV ITIAt.E EELS.* 



By Piol. p. PAVE SI. 



It would be useless to repeat tLe history of the investigations relative 

 to the reproduction of the eel, because it is well known,! and because Dr. 

 Jacoby,iu bis work '■'■Der Fischfang in der Laytinevon ComaccMo, d-c. (The 

 Fisheries in the Lagoon of ComaccLio, &c.), has treated the subject in 

 such an exhaustive manner. But I will state that on December 28, 1871, 

 Professor Ercolani, before the Academy of Bologne, and on January 

 11, 1872, Professors Balsamo and Maggi, before the same Academy, de- 

 clared that the eel was a perfect specimen of a hermaphrodite, there 

 having been found in one and the same eel organs which certainly were 

 male, together with ovaries. The question, therefore, seemed completely 

 solved, and Professor Cornalia expressed his delight ''that the mystery 

 which enveloped the question of its reproduction had bteu solved, and 

 that these hsh could really be termed hermaphrodites," and added that 

 he was "very glad this result had been obtained by Italians, while none 

 of the illustrious foreigners who had been sent to Italy on special 

 missions to study the lish-cultural establishments on the coasts of 

 Italy had been able to make the discovery." A number of professors 

 at various Italian universities published articles and pamphlets on this 

 achievement, some of which were translated into French and (lermau. 

 The only person who declared these statements premature, and opposed 

 the views of Balsamo and Maggi, was Professor Canestrini. The matter 

 now rested for a while, till 1874, when Professor Syrski, of the Aus- 

 trian university at Lemberg, published a treatise in the reports of the 

 Vienna Academy of Sciences, on studies made by him at Trieste. He 

 selected for his observations small eels, about 40*'"' [15f| inches] in length, 

 having regard to the general fact mentioned by Giinther and Darwin, 

 that probably there is no kind of lish in which the males are not smaller 

 than the females.| In some of these eels he found a small organ which 

 he called the "lappenorgan" (the rag-organ), which, although there 

 were no certain indications of the presence of spermatozoa, he did not 

 hesitate to consider as a male organ. Clans, Siebold, and Virchow now 

 began to occupy themselves with this question; and Freud declared 

 that this organ showed great similarity to the histological structure of 

 the testicles; while Jacoby wrote: "The supi)08ed testicles of the eel, 

 described by Ercolani, Crivelli, and jMaggi, show, as is proved by a 

 most careful investigation, not the slightest trace of a testicle-like 



"Extract from a paper read before the Eoyal Institute of Lombardy, Jnly 1, 1880. 

 Translated from the Italian by Herman Jacobsox. 



t Fot a very full article ou this and connected subjects, sec F. C. Bulletin, Vol. 1, 1881, 

 p.7L 



t See F. C. Bnlletin for 1881, p. 85. 



