Royal Society. 249 
Weuhnerk could never find any fuch thing 3 for all thofe he ever 
diffeaed were provided with an Utcn/S:, from hence he conjec- 
tures, that thev are hermaphrodite, and befidcs the Urerus, that 
thev are furni/hed with m.ale ieed : Another controverfy about 
the' generation of eels is, whether they arc oviparous or vivipa- 
rous'5 and tho' there are many, who firmly believe that the-y are 
oviparous, yet their fentiments are contrary to the obfervations of 
Mr. Cbet'Wynd, who in the month of May found them to be vi- 
viparous, by cutting open the red fundaments of the females, 
from whence th'e young Q^h would iflue forth alive 3 and altho' 
Mr. Jllen affirms them to be certainly viviparous, yet his obfer- 
vations concerning the place of their conception, viz. that they 
were fattened each to very imciWTlacentce affixed to the intefline, 
and that the eggs were on the outfide of the intefline, does not 
leem to be confonant to that care and induftry of nature, in pro- 
viding convenient receptacles for preierving the F(^tus--, neuher is 
it agreeable to reafon to believe, that when n:iture hath provided 
an Uterus in all animals, not onlv the viviparous, but in the 
oviparous alfo, and infects, the eel and Xlpbia^ or fword-fifh, 
ihould be the only animals without it 3 much lefs that the guts 
appointed by nature for the fecretion of nourifhment, and the ex- 
pulfion of the Fceces, and which are always in motion, fliould 
be the place of generation in any animals 3 on the contrary that 
the eel hath an Uterus, is afferted by Mr. Lee'ivenhoeck, who 
never found them without one 3 v/nich perhaps is that part, 
Mr. Allen names a ilender gland, lying traniveriely near the 
bowel : Befides, nature having furnifhed all animals hitherto dil- 
fefted not only with an Uterus, but alfo with Jiib<f, firft ob- 
ferved by FallopluSy for conveying the Ovum from the Ovarimiy 
to the Uterus, this is another great objeftion againft Mr. Allen's 
obfervations, in which indeed he feems to contradict himieli'3 f)r 
whereas he faith, that in one eel he found eggs, and thole on the 
outfide of the inteiline, but in another fix young ones, each faf- 
tened to a fmall 'Placenta, and thofe within the inte(tuie3 how 
and by whatpaffages could thole eg!>;s come into the great intel- 
tine, to be formed and invigorated? Unlefs we may luppofe, 
that like the Embryos of iome iorts of infers, they eat their 
way, for the conveniency of food, into* the heterogeneous or ai- 
fumcd Matrices. 
Vol. hi. . I i JlJe 
