98 FISH CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 
accompanying illustration, in which they are magnified 150 
diameters. When a person has a microscope which magnifies 
only roo diameters, it is best to put a portion of the ovary in 
water when dissecting it, in order that the eggs may be easily 
found. It is much easier to find the eggs in young eels, 7 or 8 
inches in length, than in the adult fish, since in the former, 
although the ovaries and the eggs are smaller, the fat cells have 
not made their appearance, and the eggs are, therefore, plainly 
visible at the first glance through the microscope. The number 
of eggs is extraordinarily large, amounting to many millions. 
The eggs of larger size, which sometimes are found in great 
quantities in eels that have been cut up and have been considered 
to be eel eggs, have always proved to be the eggs of other fish 
which they have swallowed, and in the course of cutting them 
up have been found in the eel’s belly. 
The male eels, which are found only in the sea and in the 
brackish water, are much smaller than the females, rarely 
exceeding 15 or 16 inches in length; in them, in the place of the 
ovaries in the female, are found spermaries, which differ in 
appearance in the manner heretofore referred to. These con- 
sist of two tubes which stretch the whole length of the body 
cavity, situated close to each other, and provided with numerous 
sacculations. Ripe spermatozoa are as rarely found in these 
organs as eggs ready to be laid have been found in the ovaries 
of the female. According to many accounts the male eels, which 
later were found also by Von Siebold in the Baltic Sea at Wis- 
mar, differ from the females in the possession of a proportion- 
ally sharper snout, less conspicuous dorsal fins, darker colona- 
tion of the back, a more prominent and metallic luster upon the 
sides, the clean white coloration of the belly, and the larger size 
of the eyes. I propose to reproduce here the original descrip- 
tions and figures of Syrski, the discoverer of the male eel. 
EXTERNAL CHARACTERISTICS.—JACOBY. 
The external differences presented by living eels (remarks 
Jacoby), corresponding to the presence of an ovary and the sup- 
posed male organ, are very interesting. 
