TENTH ANNUAL MEETING. gl 
eee e ras ree 
these doubts, especially since shortly after that a second speci- 
men of eel, which presented the same appearance as that which 
was described by Vallisneri, was sent from Comacchio to 
Bologna. The discussion continued, and it soon came to be re- 
garded by the scientific men of Bologna as a matter of extreme 
importance to find the true ovaries of the eel. Pietro Molinelli 
offered to the fishermen of Comacchio a valuable reward if they 
would bring him a gravid eel. In 1752 he received from a fish- 
erman a living eel with its belly much extended, which, when 
opened in the presence of a friend, he found to be filled with 
eggs. Unfortunately the joyful hopes which had been excited 
by this fortunate discovery were bitterly disappointed when it 
was shown that the eel had been cunningly opened by the fisher- 
man and filled with the eggs of another fish. The eel question 
came up again with somewhat more satisfactory results when, 
in the year 1777, another eel was taken at Comacchio which 
showed the same appearance as the two which had preceded it. 
This eel was received by Prof. Cajetan Monti, who, being indis- 
posed and unable to carry on the investigation alone, sent a 
number of his favorite pupils to a council at his house, among 
whom was the celebrated Camillo Galvani, the discoverer of 
galvanism, This eel was examined by them all and pronounced 
to be precisely similar to the one which had been described by 
Vallisneri seventy years before. It was unanimously decided 
that this precious specimen should be sent for exhaustive exam1- 
nation to the naturalist Mondini, who applied himself with great 
zeal to the task, the results of which were published in May, 
1777. The paper is entitled “De Anguillz ovariis,” and was 
published six years later in the transactions of the Bologna 
Academy.* Mondini was satisfied that the supposed fish which 
Vallisneri described was nothing but the swimming bladder of 
the eel in a diseased state, and that the bodies supposed to be 
eggs were simply postules in this diseased tissue. In connection 
with this opinion, however, Mondini gave, and illustrated by 
magnificent plates, a good description and demonstration of the 
true ovaries of the eel, as found by himself. This work, which 
in its beautiful plates illustrates also the eggs in a magnified 
fold of the ovary, must be regarded asclassical work, and it isan 
