326 (it) 



The liver (1) is laleraily compressed with sharp ventral edge. The left pari 

 is seen below the alimenlarj' canal, while the right side of the latter is covered by 

 the right part. From an incision in the posterior edge of the riglit part proceeds 

 the bile-duel, Unning upwards and forwards to the intestine. The gall-bladder is 

 situated as in Syngnathids between the right side of the alimentary canal and 

 the right part of the liver; the bile-ducts from the liver, the portal vein and 

 hepatic artery as well as the hepatic vein seem to be arranged quite as in the 

 Syngnathids. 



The alimentary canal in the dissected specimen contained rather large crusta- 

 ceans (Palæmonids; one fairly well preserved specimen was about 12 mm. in 

 length). ■'" 



The existence of an air-bladder has hitherto been denied (cf. Günther 16b 

 p. 151 ; BouLENGER 4 c p. 633). Nevertheless, if sufficiently transparent specimens are 

 held against the light an oval, clear body is always to be seen over the intestine 

 just below the first dorsal, and always in the same way filling a downward bend 

 of the intestine, thus suggesting the presence of an air-bladder. Through dissection 

 the suspicion is confirmed and the fact easily settled. The air-bladder (bl) is irre- 

 gularly pyriform, anteriorly narrowing into a point reaching about to the hind 

 end of the oesophagus, posteriorly also tapering but more abruptly, and ending 

 behind the level of the ventrals. 



The kidneys (PI. Ill, fig. 11 k) reach from below the second vertebra to the 

 end of the body cavity. From the level of the 12th vertebra they are united into 

 one body containing in its middle, between the two ducts, the right cardinal vein, 

 which seems the only one developed and is anteriorly embedded in the right kidney. 

 The anterior part of each kidney represents the "head kidney", as it contains 

 a large "pronephric glomerulus" (or "glomus"), from which the wide, straight 

 duct passes backwards through the whole organ; at some distance behind the 

 "glomus" urinary tubules appear and are present in the whole remaining part of 

 the kidney. As usual in teleosts the "head-kidney" has no tubules, consisting only 

 of lymphatic tissue surrounding the "glomus" and the beginning of the duct; the 

 latter part is not convoluted, as otherwise in bony fishes, but straight like its con- 

 tinuation through the secreting nephros. The secreting tubules of the latter are 

 short, combining to wide collecting tubules regularly grouped around the duct into 

 which they debouch. No malpighian corpuscles (or glomeruli) are to be 

 seen. Thus the kidney of Solenostomiis only in the latter respect resembles that of 

 Syngnathids; in almost every other respect it is not only different but very peculiar; 

 especially so in preserving the whole pronephric duct and the pronephric glo- 

 merulus, a feature very rarely met with in bony fishes (from my own experience 

 I only know of Zoarces viviparus possessing that structure in the adult state). In 

 Syngnathids a "head-kidney" is not only absent in the adult, but a "pronephros" 

 ("glomus") seems not at all to be formed in the embryo according to Huot, whose 



