TENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 85 
[enn ee ee ee ee 
guished by such characters that they may be recognized, though 
he remarks that he is by no means certain whether really specific 
value should be attached to them, remarking that the snout, the 
form of the eyes, the width of the bands of teeth, etc., are evi- 
dently subject to much variation. In his more recent work he 
remarks, “Some twenty-five species of eels are known from the 
coast waters of the temperate and tropical zones.” 
DARESTE’S VIEWS. 
Other recent writers have cut the knot by combining all of the 
eels into three or four, or even into one species, and it seems as 
if no other course were really practicable, since the different 
forms merge into one another with almost imperceptible grada- 
tions. In his monograph of the family of Anguilla-formed 
fishest M. C. M. Dareste remarks: 
“Dr. Gunther has recently published a monograph of the 
apodal fishes, in which he begins the work of reducing the num- 
ber of specific types. The study of the ichthyological collection 
of the Paris Museum, which contains nearly all of Kaup’s types, 
has given me the opportunity of completing the work begun by 
Dr. Gunther, and of striking from the catalogue a large number 
of nominal species which are founded solely upon individual 
peculiarities.- 
“ How are we to distinguish individual peculiarities from the 
true specific characters? In this matter I have followed the sug- 
gestions made with such great force by M. Siebold in his History 
of the Fresh Water Fishes of Central Europe. Thisaccomplished 
naturalist has shown that the relative proportions of the differ- 
ent parts of the body and the head vary considerably in fishes of 
the same species, in accordance with certain physiological condi- 
tions, and that consequently they are far from having the impor- 
tance which has usually been attributed to them in the determi- 
nation of specific characters. 
“The study of a very large number of individuals of the gen- 
era Conger and Anguilla has fully convinced me of the justice 
of this observation of Siebold; for the extreme variability 
+Comptes Rendus of the Academy of Sciences. Paris. 
