ON THE APPENDICES GENITALES (CLASPERS) IN THE SELACHIANS. 



n 



to the signification of this secretion as well as to the use of the whole organ we can only form rather 

 vague conjectures. 



Of the mobility and muscular system of the pelvic appendage Parker gives the follow- 

 ing information, showing that the same muscle is found here as in Chiiii(era: The Clasper is exserted 

 by the action of a strong muscle arising from the inner face of the pubic cartilage and passing over 

 its anterior border to be inserted into the principal cartilage («the serrated plate ) of the clasper. The 

 plane of movement of the organ is nearly horizontal . 



3. Which is the Function of the Appendices Qenitales? 



That the ventral appendages are peculiar to the males of the Chondropterygians is an old and 

 wideh- known fact — the\' have alread}- been mentioned by Aristotle'), and at the present day most 

 fishermen distinguishes the male from the female b)' means of them-). Everybody,' then agrees that 

 these organs in some way or other subserves the copulation; but till recently we liave had no real 

 observation of the copulation of Chondropterj'gians 3) , and we have therefore been obliged to form 

 our opinion of the use of these organs from their structure. Many authors — Rondelet^), I think, 

 as the first — have thought the appendices only to be organs for clasping the female during copu- 

 lation, and therefore names as (Holders-', «Claspers», <■ Haftorgane >, < Halteorgane-> , «Klammern , and 

 the like have been generally used; as a consequence of this idea they have always, I think, been 

 considered to act as a kind of prehensile organ, which might cling to some part of the bod}- of the 

 female outside, and thus hold it fast 5). Others, on the contrary, have supposed that these organs 

 have to be introduced into the sexual organs of the female; but their action there has been inter- 

 preted in several ways. Almost all the earlier authors, as Linne, Artedi, Willughby (Ray), 

 Klein, Battarra, Gunnerus have thought that they convey the sperm, and called them Poics^ 

 Mriifula-, or Membra genitalia, and with regard to their existing in pairs, some of those authors refer 

 to the Snakes, which analogon also seems to be rather obvious. After the appearance of the works 

 by Bloch, the first-mentioned idea of the appendages as mere external clasping organs gained many 



however, cannot take place, and so the whole supposition has to be dropped. Garman does not mention Uie structure of 

 the appendix itself. 



'j ' lazopiai ::spc Zuw)/. Ed. by Aubert and Wiuimer. Leipzic 1868, vol.1, p. 455, Chap. V, 5, §15. 



-) Lorenzini (Osser\^azione intorno alle Torpedine, 1678), who, it would seem, has only known the appendages 

 in tlie Rays, declares that they maj- be found in both sexes. He says nothing of their function. This misconception — that 

 they are also to be found in the females — recurs oftener. I think the assertion by A. Fritsch, that in tlie Xenacanths the 

 old females are also provided with appendages, to be not better founded. (In Bashford Dean: Fishes living and fossil 

 [Columbia Univ. Biol. Series, III] 1S95, a figure is found on p. 73, representing - General Anatomy of shark (9)», and this 9 is 

 provided with claspers<!). 



3) The hvely description by La Cepede (Histoire naturelle des Poissons, T. I, p. 254 — 55) of a copulation between 

 two .Sharks, is evidently not founded on observation. His description and construction of the appendices (1. c. p. CXLHI, p- 70, 

 p. 273) are based on the essaj-s of Bloch. 



4) Libri de piscibus marinis, 1554, Lib. IIII, p. 89: Mares cartilaginei fere onines circa podice appendices duas habent 

 quibus coire creduntvir. At ego illas saepe multuuique contemplatus, non video quo pacto his coire ilh possint; potius igitur 

 ad retinendas foeminas factas esse arbitror . 



5) This is decidedly said by Bloch (Schr. Berl. Ges. vol.6, pp.379, 3S4), whose excellent representation seems to 

 have influenced verj- many authors; further by Home (Phil. Tr. 1809, p. 207, and 1810, p. 206), bj' Cuvier & Valen- 

 ciennes (Hist. nat. des Poissons P. I, p. 536), bv Treviranus (Tiedemann u. Treviranus Zeitschr. fiir Physiologic vol.2, 

 1S28, p. 9 [in the explanation of the figures]), bv Dumeril (I.e. p. 241), and others. 



