ON THE APPENDICES GENITALES (CLASPERS) IN THE GREENLAND SHARK. 



its biological conditions are unknown, as the same thing may be said of many common species of 

 fishes on our own coasts; but it seems more remarkable that we do not even know for certain whether 

 the Greenland Shark is vi\-iparous or oviparous, and that several features of the anatomical structure 

 of the animal are unknown or only deficiently known. Although this species of Sharks is rather 

 frequentlv found on the more populated European coasts — also on ours — and more than once has 

 come into the hands of naturalists, even anatomists, we are thus far from being perfectly acquainted 

 with the structure of its urinary and reproductive organs. 



The facts which have in later years been brought forth as to the latter — and upon the whole 

 concerning the «viscerai' of the Greenland Shark — are due to Sir William Turner, who has exa- 

 mined several specimens from British coasts and has given his results in The Journal of Anatoni}- and 

 Physiology » '). 



As to the female the first of these communications (i) showed the surprising result that 

 oviducts were wanting. Consequently the Greenland Shark would necessarily be oviparous, and the 

 ova, detached from the ovary, would presumably leave the abdominal ca\-it}- through the abdominal 

 jDores to be impregnated outside the mother. That the ovaries were immature in both the examined 

 animals of a respective length of ii ft. 8 inches and 8'/^ ft. is however evident from the description. 

 Later (3) the first statement is corrected: oviducts^) are found, opening as usual in the Sharks with wide, 

 funnelshaped, closelv united mouths before the li\'er, and running along the lower side of the kidneys 

 to the cloaca; in the examined specimen of 7 feet length they were about as thick as a goosequill; 

 the ovaries were quite immature. Still later (4) these parts are described in a somewhat more deve- 

 loped state in a Greenland Shark 11 ft. 6 in. long; the diameter of the oviduct was only i/a inch 

 (about I ctm.); the ovaries were quite immature. In none of these communications is shown, whether 

 any «shell gland , any indication of an uterus, indications of folds of the mucous membrane or the 

 like were found. To judge from the fact of these structures not being mentioned , that nothing of 

 the kind is found, I do not think justifiable; a shell-gland for inst. is generally alwa)-s found in 

 Sharks, whether they be oviparous or viviparous; more probably these structures on account of the 

 immature state of the animals have not been prominent, and therefore have not been noticed. For that 

 all the females examined b}- Sir W. Turner have been immature and young animals admits, I think, 

 of no doubt. The fact is that we know to a certainty that the mature ovarial eggs are about as large 

 as goose-eggs, but the largest mentioned by Sir W. Turner were onh- of the size of shot or at most 

 of small bullets, and we know that the Greenland Shark grows to a still more considerable size than 

 II ft. 8 in.; therefore if the oviducts showed so small a size and besides (presumably) so simple a 

 shape, it is only, what might be expected in younger individuals 5), and I see no reason at all to 



') I) A Contribution to the Visceral Anatomy of the Greenland Shark iLiemargus boreahs). L. c. 7, 1873, p. 233. 

 2) Additional observations on the Anatomj- of the Greenl. Shark. L,. c. 8, 1874, p. 285. 3) Note on the Oviducts of the Greenl. 

 Shark. L. c. 12, 1878, p. 604. 41 Additional Note on the Oviducts etc. I,, c. 19, 18S5, p. 221. 



2) The oviducts had already been seen in 1847 by Kneeland (Boston Journ. Nat. Hist. 5, p. 479, 485) in a specimen 

 of the length of 7 ft. 5 in.; the ovaries were immature. The first statement bv Sir W.Turner has been repeated bj' 

 Fiirbringer: Zur vergl. Anat. u. Entwickelungsgesch. der Excretionsorgane der Vertebraten (Morphol. Jahrb. 4, 187S) p. 53, 83; 

 it is found as late as in Guide Schneider: Ueber die Entvv. der Genitalcaniile bei Cobilis faiiia L,. und Plioximis lirvis 

 Ag. (Mem. Ac. Imp. d. Sc. de St. Petersbourg [8] T. 2, 1895) p. 9. 



3) Comp. J oh. M tiller: Untersuchungen iiber die Eingeweide der Fische, Schluss der vergleichende Anatomie der 

 Myxinoiden lAbhdl. K. Ac. Wiss. Berlin 1S43 [1S45]), p. 133, 134. 



