EEPRODUCTION AND GROWTH OF THM PILCHARD. 153 



Journal d'Anatomie et de Physiologie, December, 1890, Pouchet 

 again discusses tlie history of the sardine. He refers to the note I 

 have criticised above, saying that in it he made known for the first 

 time the ripe egg of the sardine. The assertion is the more sur- 

 prising because in a note on the same page he refers to my paper 

 published in this Journal in March, 1889, four months before his 

 own, and containing both a description and figure of the ripe ovum 

 taken fi'om the fish. In this foot-note Pouchet remarks that I made 

 no reference to the structure of the vitelline membrane, which alone 

 could justify an identification of the egg. He refers to a detailed 

 description of the ripe ovarian egg by M. Bietrix, one of his assist- 

 ants, printed as an appendix to the Report. But strange to say 

 M. Bietrix does not confirm Pouchet^s results as to the peculiarities 

 of the vitelline membrane. He finds, it is true, that the membrane 

 consists of two layers, but he states that the ridges on the internal 

 face of the membrane are not always present, and when present are 

 very variable in appearance j they are generally present when the 

 egg is taken from the ovary and disappear a few minutes afterwards. 

 M. Bietrix thinks that these markings are perhaps due to an altera- 

 tion of the membrane, the eggs having only been examined in 

 sardines captured several hours before, and in a bad state of pre- 

 servation. It is evident, therefore, that no importance in respect 

 to identification is to be attributed to the vitelline membrane of the 

 egg of the sardine. On the other hand, M. Bietrix, like Pouchet 

 himself, fully confirms my description of the yolk and the single 

 oil-globule. 



Pouchet's most recent utterance on this subject is a note in the 

 Comptes Rendus, dated April 6th, 1891. He tells us there that he 

 has only twice in three years been able to observe ripe female sar- 

 dines ready to spawn, namely May 29th, 1888, and April 3rd, 1890. 

 It is evident, therefore, that Pouchet has not had many opportuni- 

 ties for studying the subject, the reason probably being that there 

 is no fishing at Concarneau capable of capturing adult sardines, 

 and carried on at a sufiicient distance from the shore. 



Professor Marion, at Marseilles, has published his observations on 

 the sardine in the Annales du Musee de Marseille, 1890 and 1891. 

 He finds that adult sardines are present in the Gulf of Marseilles all 

 the year round. The sexual organs show no signs of enlargement 

 till the beginning of October, and ripe specimens are seen from 

 December till March, while some shoals have not spawned till the 

 beginning of May. This result is in harmony with mine, for it is 

 not surprising that the sardine should spawn in winter and spring 

 in the warm waters of the Mediterranean, while it spawns in summer 

 at Plymouth, and in both regions it appears that the spawning 



