44 MR. SWALE VINCENT ON THE 



The earliest account of the suprarenal bodies in fishes appears to be that of Retzius. 

 His description, written in 1819, has reference only to cartilaginous fishes. 



Retzius (i8) pointed out as suprarenals certain structures in Squalus glaucus, 

 8. acanthias, Eaja clavata, B. fullonica, and R. hatis. From his description it 

 is evident that he refers to what is now usually termed the " interrenal body." 

 He considered this organ to be the suprarenal on account of its resemblance in 

 texture to the suprarenals of birds i. 



The suprarenals in Teleostei appear to have been discovered by Stannius (20) in 

 1839. 



In 1843 J. Midler (16) described in Myxinoids a clustered gland without a duct on 

 each side of the cardia, which he at first considered to be a suprarenal, but afterwards 

 thought to be thymus. In Petromyzon he found instead of this gland " certain white 

 plugs with which the trunks of the posterior veins of the body are beset." These 

 structures had been previously described by Rathke 2. 



Three years later, in 1846, Stannius and Ecker threw considerable light on the 

 subject. Stannius (21) describes the suprarenals as existing both in the higher 

 cartilaginous and in the bony fishes. His account of the suprarenals in Elasmobranchs 

 obviously applies only to the interrenal. The segmentally-arranged bodies were not yet 

 discovered. He gives also in this first edition a fairly good account of the general 

 position of the suprarenals in several Teleosts and in the Sturgeon. In addition this 

 observer questions the right of Midler's " clustered gland " to rank as a suprarenal. 



Ecker (6), in addition to verifying the results of the above observer in regard to the 

 gross anatomy of the suprarenals, gives an account of their minute anatomy, which was 

 for many years the common store of information on this subject. 



In 1851 Hyrtl (10) mentions some facts about the suprarenals in several Teleosts. 

 He examined 222 species. He gives first a short and very imperfect account of their 

 general position and appearances, and then mentions them very briefly under the 

 special heading of the species. But, although he states in his introductory general 

 description that suprarenals were found in almost all the fish he examined, yet I find, 

 on looking through the paper, that they are only specifically noted in 28 species. In 

 some two or three cases he states that he could not find them. In all the rest he never 

 mentions them. He definitely found them in : — • 



Uranoscopus scaler. 

 Coitus quadricomis. 

 Diagramma punctatum. 

 Lophius piscaturius. 

 Chironectes punctatus. 

 Normyrus oxyrhynchus. 



Silurus ffla?iis. 

 Schilbe mystus. 

 Pimelodus bayard. 

 Sa/mo fario. 

 Saurus lacerta. 

 Clupea nilotica. 



' See also Nagel, Miiller's Archiv, 1S36. 



* See Collinge and Vincent Qoc. cit.), also Pettit {Joe. cit.). — S. V., 10. 1. 97. 



