120 Thiftii-scvviilh Ainnidl MccHikj 



tliis case, and if Mr. Atkins will only send to tlie Sniithsoiiiaii 

 Institntion one of those eels we will give the solution of the 

 prol)lem. It is undoubtedly a ease of fatty hypertrophy and 

 degeneration of the glands. 



:\Ir. Atkins: What glands? 



Dr. ({ill: Of the ovaries which are found in rudimentary 

 condition. l)ut also sul)ject to hy])ertrophy and fatty degenera- 

 tion, hut you do not find tlu' eggs fertile. 



^Ir. Atkins: 1 did not maintain tliat they were fertile. 



Dr. (Jill: As 1 said you can find the eggs in a rudimentary 

 condition with the microscope, hut those are not eggs that can 

 he fertilized or which will generate young. 



Then as for the other conflicting statement that eels do not 

 die after fertilization, I do not know how the gentleman came to 

 that conclusion, because eels are constantly going up and down 

 the river, and why he should su])pose that any ])articular eel he 

 examined had ovaposited 1 do not know. At any rate it is re- 

 garded as certain that eels do die after o\'i])osition. 



The ovaries are develo])ed to a great size. The conger eel 

 in (U-dinary conditions has small ovaries but at maturity sonu'- 

 times develops them to a l)\n-sting coiulition. Xow the eel it- 

 self has to go to great depths to spawn, and no eel has yet bt-en 

 obtained from those depths. They undoubtedly will be later, 

 and I am almost surprised that they have not been heretofore. 

 but it is rather a difficult thing to get a large eel from the dei)th 

 of .")()() fathoms or more as you well know, and consequently none 

 has been obtained as yet. Bnt then we have the evidence of 

 these leptocephali that have come to the surface. These lepto- 

 ce]ihali are fonnd in all conditions ; they advance slowly to the 

 land. When they first enter the rivers they are still translucent. 

 but by that time they have assumed the cylindrical form, to- 

 wards which they have been gradually tending from the time 

 they are found in the high seas hundreds of miles away until 

 they approach the land. Xow European ichthyologists, se\eral 

 of them, devoted long years of research to this subject ; expedi- 

 tions have been sent out at a cost of thousands of dollars. These 

 investigators have l)een well equii)])e(l with intellectual and phy- 



