6 On Abnormal Oviducts in Homarus vulgaris. 



exactly as in a normal female. Oi* the three apertures the 

 first and second, on the third leg of the right side and tiie 

 fourth leg of the left (fig. 1, a &, h), are dark in colour and 

 ■with a hairy front edge. The third opening, on the fifth leg 

 of the left side (fig. 1, c), is pale in colour; it lias no hairs 

 and is rather more raised than the first and second apertures, 

 but its hind edge is not so elevated as is that of the opening 

 of the vas deferens of the male. The third opening is very 

 slightly smaller than the other two. All three are patent. 



The ovary is fully ripe, and a microscopic examination of 

 portions of the anterior and posterior ends fails to show any 

 evidences of hermaphroditism. The duct to the third right 

 leg (fig. 2, a) arises from the right side of the ovary at about 

 the same distance behind the ovarian bridge as in a normal 

 female. The duct on the left side to the last leg arises from 

 the left side of the ovary at a more posterior level (fig. 2, c). 

 The tube is exactly like a noruial oviduct, gently tapering, 

 and without any differentiation of middle glandular segment 

 and terminal ejaculatory segment that one finds in the vas 

 deferens of the lobster *. 



The duct to the penultimate leg of the left side (fig. 2, h) 

 could not be traced in its entirety, owing to the fact that in 

 the interval between the death of the animal and the dissection 

 of its body tiie liver had exerted a digestive action upon the 

 surrounding parts, particularly in the regions represented in 

 fig. 2 by the dotted lines. There is no indication that the 

 duct to the fourth leg arose as a branch from the duct to the 

 fifth leg; if it existed at all it must have come direct from 

 the gonad. The lower part of the duct (the part near the 

 letter h in fig. 2) is as wide as the corresponding part of the 

 other two ducts, and like them contains ova, so that there 

 can hardly be any doubt that the duct was a functional ovi- 

 duct, and not a short tube ending blindly internally. 



The specimen is deemed worthy of description, partly 

 because of the scarcity of recorded cases of abnormality in the 

 genitalia of the lobster, partly because the specimen was 

 sufficiently fresh for the relations of the internal parts to be 

 ascertained, and partly because, as I have urged before f, it 

 behoves one to place on record cases of abnormality, even 

 though as solitary instances they may be of no particular 

 interest, in order that it may be possible for later writers to 



* For structure of vas deferens, see Grobben, C, Arb. Zool. Inst. Wien, 

 i. 1878, pi. i. tig. 6; also Herrick, F. H., " The American Lobster,"' Bull, 

 U.S. Fish. Conim., "N^'asbington, 189o, pi. xxxvi. fig. 120. 



t Auat. Anzeiger, 1888, p. 333 ; and Proc. Zool. Soc. Loud. 1001, 

 i. p. 40, 



