116 FISH CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 
measure from 20 to 24 inches, and in the third year are ready to 
be eaten. On account of their rapid growth and hardy nature, 
in consequence of which latter they live in mud-holes and 
unprofitable waters of all kinds, the breeding of eels is a very 
remunerative business. The young fish (of which, at the time 
of their first appearance at the mouths of rivers, it takes 1,500 to 
1,700 to make a pound, while, when taken later and a little fur- 
ther from the sea, it takes only 350 or 400 for the same weight) 
may be obtained at low prices from France through Huningen, 
or in Germany from Randesberg, and, through the Berlin Aqua- 
rium, from Wittenberg, and, when the temperature of the air is 
not too high, may be carried in soft moss throughout all Ger- 
many. 
According to the statement of the well-known Paris fish-mer- 
chant, Millet, two pounds of eels, planted in a muddy pond in 
1840, in five years yielded 5,000 pounds of fine eels. 
OBSERVATIONS OF DR. HERMES IN 1881 ON THE CONGER. 
The observations of Dr. Otto Hermes, director of the Berlin 
Aquarium, who has recently discovered the true nature of the 
organ of Syrski in the conger, are extremely interesting. 
‘Since Syrski, in 1874 found the organs in Anguilla vulgaris— 
which are called by his name, and which, by him and most zo6l- 
ogists, were taken for the male reproductive organs—it is only 
necessary that a ripe male eel should be found thac in order to 
settle forever the question of the sexes of the eel. Up to this 
time all efforts have failed to reach the desired result. The his- 
tiological investigations of the Syrskian organs pursued by S. 
Freud render it more probable that these were young roes; yet 
there remained all the time a doubt, since the spermatozoa had 
not been actually observed, and this uncertainty is an insupera- 
ble obstacle to the acceptance of the Syrskian discovery. The 
supposed discovery of spermatozoa by A, S. Packard in the male 
eel proved to be another delusion. The contradiction of this 
imaginary discovery appeared in No. 26 of the second volume 
of the Zoologische Anzeiger, p. 193, in which it was stated that the 
motile bodies were not spermatozoa, but yolk particles. This 
