TENTH ANNUAL MEETING. Io! 
the hundred in the intestinal cavity of the eel, and which may 
be easily distinguished from the eels of the same size by the 
sharp ends of the body, the absence of fins, of eyes and mouth, 
and by the sluggishness of their motions. The smallest eels, 
less than an inch in length, have already the complete form of 
the adult, and are also transparent, so that with a magnifying 
glass one may perceive the pulsations of the heart, and see 
behind it the brownish-red liver; the mouth, the pectoral, dorsal, 
anal, and caudal fins are easily seen, and the black eyes cannot 
be overlooked. In addition to the intestinal worms, the young 
of a fish of another family, Zoarces viviparus, have given oppor- 
tunity to the ignorant for many discoveries; for instance, Dr. 
Aberhard, in No. 4 of the Garten-laube for 1874, described and 
illustrated an “embryo of the eel,” which, in company with 
about a thousand similar embryos, had been cut out of the belly 
of aneel. This tolerably good drawing at first sight is seen to 
represent the embryo of zoarces which is almost ready for birth, 
since it still possessesa very minute umbilical sac. It is very evi- 
dent that the minute egg of the eel could hardly produce a great 
embryo with an umbilical sac which exceeds by more than a 
hundred times in size the whole egg. It is also evident that the 
imagination of the writer had exaggerated the 200 or 300 young 
in the zoarces to a thousand. 
HUNT FOR YOUNG EELS.—JACOBY. 
As might have been foreseen (continues Jacoby), Syrski's dis- 
covery drew attention anew to the solution of the eel problem. 
In the spring and summer of 1877, the German and Austrian 
papers and journals were full of articles and paragraphs upon 
this subject. Among others the following announcement made 
the rounds of the press: ‘“‘ Hitherto, in spite of all efforts, science 
has not succeeded in discovering the secret of the reproduction 
of the eel. The German Fischerei-Verein in Berlin offers a pre- 
mium of 50 marks to the person who shall first find a gravid eel 
which shall be sufficiently developed to enable Professor Vir- 
chow in Berlin to dissipate the doubts concerning the propaga- 
tion of the eel. Herr Dallmer, of Schleswig, inspector of fish- 
