18 Prof. KótLIKER on the Structure of 
tain relation between them. It was then that the view first occurred to me 
that the Hectocotyle might be the males of the Cephalopods on which they 
live, when I called to mind that the twelve specimens of Hect. Tremoctopodis 
violacei and the three of Hect. Argonaute which I had obtained at Messina 
were all males, and that although a very large number of Argonauts had been 
examined with reference to their sexual organs, no one had yet been fortunate 
enough to discover male organs in them. I can prove that of 280 Argonauts, of 
which Poli examined 30, Delle Chiaje 50, Van Beneden 3, Owen 100, Brode- 
rip 60, and myself 50, there was not a single male. On this assumption it was 
easy to explain why no one had hitherto been able to detect the male of 
Argonauta, although it must be admitted that males are very abundant; for 
as Owen, Madame Power, myself and many others have observed, nearly all 
the female Argonauts carry about with them impregnated bags of eggs, con- 
taining embryos more or less developed. On the other hand, I could not 
attach too much importance to this view, as it appeared too hazardous to 
believe that the small vermiform Hectocotyle with their (as far as could be 
ascertained) imperfect organization, could be the males of some of the larger 
Cephalopoda, which stand so high as regards their structure. I was compelled 
indeed to admit that something similar takes place with regard to some ani- 
mee es eyes Crustacea ; in which, as Nordmann has shown, in the genera 
| , opoda, Tracheliastes, &c., the males are not only many times 
(frequently à thousand times) smaller than the female, 
