Statistics of Fish. 97 
his own words, herebant in diversis membranits tinvolute an- 
guille. 
Vallisneri (beginning of the eighteenth century) has 
given illustrations of the true ovaries of the eel, but, follow- 
ing Walpiglie and Redi, calls them vas? adiposi (fatty vessels); 
and having accidentally found in an eel a_pathologically- 
deformed swimming-bladder, announced with great joy to 
the Academy of Bologna and the whole scientific world that 
he had found the true ovary of the eel. 
Luine maintains that eels are viviparous. 
Carlo Mundini, Professor of Anatomy at the University of 
Bologna, was the first discoverer of the ovary of the eel, of 
which he gave a detailed description to the Academy. of Bo- 
logna the 19th day of May, 1777, which, however, was not 
published till 1783. 
Otto Miiller writes, in 1780, that he has found eggs in 
the fringed bodies, but the description which he gives of 
them being in some respects inaccurate, preéminence must 
be accorded to that of Mundini. 
Shallanzani, a distinguished naturalist, who lived towards 
the end of the eighteenth and in the beginning of the pres- 
ent century, basing his opinion on the examination of four 
hundred and ninety-seven eels, casts doubts on the discovery 
of Mundini, remarking, “That not content with destroying, 
he wishes to erect on the Vallisnerian ruins a new edifice.” 
These words, however, lead us to suppose that a certain anl- 
mosity towards the anatomist Mundini, whom he possibly 
considered as an intruder among the zoologists, has led his 
judgment astray. In another place, moreover, he contradicts 
himself when he adds, “If the masses of little globules were 
eggs, and if they were found united with the fecundating 
emen, the eels would be true hermaphrodites.” 
