BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 







true spermatic tubuli, as may be seen from the accompanying figures. 

 It is thus evident that there cau be no shadow of doubt but that these 

 are truly the male organs of the eel, for I find that the granules alluded 

 to by Syvski are really the heads of what in future will probably become 

 spermatozoa, fcr they are globular and nearly uniform in size. The 

 whole character of the organs, both macroscopically and microscopic- 

 ally, is so entirely different from that of the ovaries found in the female 

 that there is no possibility of confounding them. 



Another important fact I would point out, namely, that the Syrskian 

 lobules of the testicle of the male eel correspond almost exactly to the 

 muscular and skeletal segments of the animal, a trait which is not dis- 

 coverable in the female organs, and one which illustrates a singular fact 

 in morphology, viz, that metamerism may show itself in the glandular 

 part of the reproductive organs of one sex and not manifest itself in the 

 structure of the generative apparatus of the other. 



Fig. l. 



Fn 



In the accompanying figures there is undoubted evidence of the ex- 

 istence of something analogous to seminiferous tubules, in the solid 

 strands of adherent and immature spermatic bodies ; how nearly the 

 spermatozoa are mature must, of course, remain an open question. The 

 Fire Island specimens were taken near the shore, in one to two fathoms 

 of water, during the month of September, Another series of specimens 

 from Wood's Holi, Massachusetts, bearing I he Museum number 29959, 



