BULLETIN OF THE UNITED .STATES FISH COMMLSSION. 223 



Structure." The controversy began to grow hot. Siebold did not ie«t 

 until in 1875 he found many male eels in the Baltic near Wismar, Late 

 in the autumn of 1877 Professor Jacoby came to Comacchio to resume his 

 researches. The German Fishery Association stirred up all the fisher- 

 men and lish-culturists of Germany, by promising a reward to any one 

 who would send male eels to Professor Virchow at Berlin. Dr. Pauly, 

 of Monaco, with the assistance of Mr. Keiffer, anatomized some eels, 

 and sent one to Professor Benecke of the University of Konigsberg, 

 who entirely confirmed the result of Dr. Pauly's patient researches; 

 as also did Dr. Hermes. Meanwhile there came from America the an- 

 nouncement through Prof. A. S. Packard, of Brown University, in the 

 first number of the Zoologischer Anzeiger for 1879, that Mr. Edwards, 

 of Boston, Mass., had, in December, 1875, found males of the AnguUla 

 bostoniensis. It is true that soon after Professor Packard corrected his 

 own statement, in an article inserted in the American Naturalist, to the 

 effect that the supposed spermatozoa were cells with a molecular move- 

 ment; while Jacoby wrote: "The alleged spermatozoa described in the 

 work of Maggi and Crivelli, are nothing but microscopic fatty particles, 

 or small crystalline bodies, such as are frequently found in fat cells." 

 It could not be supposed, however, that the organs considered as testi- 

 cles by Balsamo [Crivellij and Maggi, were a fatty degeneration of the 

 Syrskian organ, both on account of their structure and their different 

 location. 



From the preparations and diagrams which I saw at the Berlin Ex- 

 position in 1880, it apjiears that the testicles are stretched along the 

 body cavity in the shape of two lobular bands. They are covered by a 

 large number of fatty cells. They commence at the liver and pass the 

 anal aperture, the left one a little further than the right, and finally 

 end in a point. When fresh they are said to be clear and transparent, 

 but in alcohol they become opaque. Under the rectum, and over the 

 urinary bladder there is a seminal bag, which terminates in a small 

 tube at the anal aperture. The two live eels which were exhibited 

 in the Berlin aquarium came from Dr. Hermes, in Trieste, and were, 

 alter a careful external examination bj^ Dr. Jacoby and Dr. Grneffe, 

 determined as male eels. When one of them died. Dr. Hermes very 

 kindly presented the organs referred to to the Berlin aquarium. On 

 examination it was found that these fish were thirty to forty centi- 

 meters [12 to 16 inches] long, of an olive-green color on the upper, and 

 a silverish -white color on the lower part. These two colors were very 

 distinct; and there was a blackish spot of an oblong shape in the 

 opercular region. They generally jireferred to hide at the bottom of 

 the aquarium among the aquatic plants, but occasionally swam about 

 in the open water. 



The above-mentioned characteristics are only individual, although 

 they formed the distinguishing marks of those which possessed the 



