TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 109 



" Fasciola gigantica,Cohho\d. — Corpore'compresso,elliptico-lanceolato,terunciatim 

 longo, antrorsum attenuate ; ore hausteiioque antice ; coUo elongato, cyliudrico ; 

 Cauda rotundata ; ventiiculo dendritico, ramis clausis. 



Habitat in hepate Camelopardalis Giraffm." 



Description of a ^nalformed Trout. By T. Spencer Cobbold, M.D.S^c. 



The author of this communication remarked as follows : — " For the specimen now 

 before the Association I am indebted to Mr. Thomas TurnbuU, who captured it 

 while fly-fishing in the river Jed, near Jedburgh. He stated, that though for many 

 years familiar with different kinds of trout, he had never met with one of this form. Its 

 chief peculiarity, viewed externally, consists in the preponderant depth of the body, 

 as compared with the length, giving the animal a hump-backed appearance, and 

 causing it in outline to resemble individuals of the Sparidse or Cyprinidse, rather than 

 members of its own group. To ascertain the cause of this anomaly, we proceeded 

 to examine the viscera, under the impression that any deviation from the structural 

 arrangement usually observed in Salmonidse would indicate a hybrid, the visceral 

 morphology at the same time suggesting the kind of fish whence such agency had 

 been derived. 



" Turning down the integument, and dissecting the great lateral muscular mass 

 from one side so as to expose some of the ribs and diverging appendages, these parts, 

 and some of the vertebral segments which had also been laid bare, at once offered 

 an explanation of the longitudinal shortening of the trunk ; we had here, in fact, an 

 extreme abrogation of the spinal column, resulting from the coalescence of numerous 

 vertebral 'centra,' giving rise secondarily to modifications in the surrounding soft 

 parts. 



" The following is a brief record of the skeletal peculiarities : — 



" The vertebral segments, not including the bony elements of the head, which ap- 

 pear natural, are fifty-six in number. The first seven, proceeding from before back- 

 ward, have their bodies or 'centra' united into one bone, the multiple parts of which are 

 recognized by grooves at the side, and further indicated by seven corresponding 

 spinous processes above, and as many ribs, with the accompanying styliform appen- 

 dages, below. A single ' centrum ' carries the neural and haemal elements of the 

 eighth and ninth vertebrae. 



" Thus far the bones do not present any marked change of position, save that which 

 immediately results from their close approximation. There is a little bending for- 

 ward of the tips of the spinous processes belonging to the five hindmost, but through- 

 out their greater extent they take, as usual, an oblique course backward. 



" The tenth vertebral quantity is normal, but its neural spine, to which is articulated 

 the first of the interspinous bones, is much curved forward. The eleventh and 

 twelfth are conjoined; their laminae or ' neurapophyses ' slope backward, as in the 

 healthily-developed trout, but the corresponding neural spines have a perpendicular 

 direction. The thirteenth segment is quantitatively natural, its autogenous parts 

 having a similar disposition to the foregoing. The bodies of the fourteenth and 

 fifteenth vertebrae are united to form a single ' centrum.' The sixteenth and 

 seventeenth are likewise anchylosed, but more attenuated. The ' centra ' of the 

 succeeding five segments, viz. the eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth, twenty-first, 

 and twenty-second, are all developed into a single osseous mass. The neural spines 

 of these, and the preceding six, are all very closely packed together ; they support 

 the eleven interspinous bones, and in consequence of a vertical position, have tilted 

 up the latter with their associated fin rays, so as to produce the great dorsal eleva- 

 tion. The ribs curve obliquely forward, and this mal-direction, especially at the 

 upper part of the haemal arches, applies more or less to all the ' pleurapophysial ' 

 elements of the spinal series at present described ; the small osseous appendages 

 agree in number and relation. 



" From the twenty-third to the thirty-third vertebra inclusive, the neural and haemal 

 'apoph^'ses' are attached to a single bone, which is consequently the representative 

 of eleven ' centra.' The laminae or ' neurapophyses ' of the first six segments are 

 .directed diagonally forward, the neural spines of all gradually curving backward. 

 The transverse processes or ' parapophyses,' with the accompanying ' pleurapo- 

 physes,' belonging to nine of the included segments, approach the normal position. 



