458 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [2] 



In the autumn of 1879 1 received a number of sea eels which had been 

 caught near Havre, measuring 60 to 70 centimeters in length. They ate 

 voraciously and grew rapidly. Only one did not develop so fast, and 

 could easily be distinguished from the others by its smaller size. This, 

 the smallest of all the sea eels in the aquarium, died on the 20th of June, 

 1879, and was examined by me the same day. I was very much sur- 

 prised when I discovered that its sexual organs were entirely different 

 from those hitherto observed in eels. When an incision was made in 

 these organs a milky fluid oozed out. I had before me a mature male 

 eel. A drop of this fluid, when placed under the microscope and mag- 

 nified 450 times, showed a large number of live spermatozoids, whose 

 head and tail could easily be distinguished. They moved about in a 

 very lively manner, thus fully establishing the fact that the organs ex- 

 amined by me were male organs. As to my knowledge no mature male 

 of the Conger .vulgaris had ever been found or described, I requested 

 Dr. Eabl-Eiickhard to examine this fish with me, and had correct draw- 

 ings of the organs made by a painter, Mr. Miitzel, and, for the sake of 

 comparison, placed by the side of these drawings a sketch of the ovaria 

 of a female Conger measuring 84 centimeters in length. Both these 

 drawings, reduced to half of their natural size, accompany this article. 



The male sexual organs lie on both sides of the swimming-bladder, re. 

 sembling long, compressed, ribbon-like channels extending the whole 

 length of the abdominal cavity, commencing at the liver and extending 

 beyond the anus. By a number of lateral notches each testicle is divided 

 in several parts of different size. The right testicle has four such notches, 

 and therefore five parts, the first section, counting from the head, measur- 

 ing 45 millimeters ; the second, 70 ; the third, separated from the second 

 by a notch extending only half the breadth of the organ, 8 ; the fourth, 43, 

 and the fifth, 38. The left testicle consists of an upper part measuring 

 103 millimeters, followed by a second part of 18 millimeters, and by one 

 of 80, which by three notches, extending only one-third of the breadth 

 of the organ, is subdivided into three parts measuring 15, 27, and 38 

 millimeters, respectively. The thickness of the most strongly developed 

 upper part of the left testicle is 9 millimeters, and its breadth from the 

 root to the free edge 18 millimeters. The attachment of the right testi- 

 cle commences 11 millimeters farther forward than that of the left. The 

 free edge of both testicles gradually grows narrower, and thus forms a 

 border consisting of several folds measuring at most 4 millimeters 

 in breadth and overlapping the parenchyma. If we compare these 

 organs of Conger with the so-called SyrsTci organs of Anguilla — de- 

 scribed in circular No. 2, 1880 — the similarity of the two is very strik- 

 ing. In Anguilla we see a large number of small subdivisions or parts, 

 and in Conger a small number of large parts. But if we consider that 

 owing to the difference in the size of these two species, the parts of 

 Conger must be simpler and larger, and that we examined a fully grown 

 mature male Conger measuring 74 centimeters, whilst the sexual organs 

 of the Anguilla — measuring 43 centimeters — were not fully developed, 



