SUPEAEENAL BODIES IN FISHES. 49 



aux contours des mailles de la trame conjonctive des corps. Les dissociations nous ont 

 egalement donne des resultats negatifs." He doubts their analogy to the suprarenal 

 bodies of Mammalia, and describes their structure thus : — " De la fine membrane qui les 

 enveloppe partent des filets qui vont former dans son interieur, de concert avec ceux 

 qui naissent de l'anneau conjonctif entourant l'arteriole, une sorte de reticulum tres 

 complique, a mailles inegales, dans lesquelles se trouvent un nombre considerable de 

 noyaux ovales. Chacun de ces noyaux, pourvu de plusieurs petits corps tres refringents, 

 parait simplement plonge dans le protoplasme granuleux ; on pourrait peut-etre 

 supposer qu'il appartient a une cellule sans membrane d'enveloppe dont le proto- 

 plasme granuleux se fusionne avec celui des cellules voisines. De cette fusion 

 resulterait une masse protoplasmique unique contenant tous les noyaux et remplissant 

 les mailles du reticulum. Enfin des ganglions et des cellules sympathiques se trouvent 

 assez souvent plonges dans le parenchyme du corps, et, a sa surface, circulent sans 

 penetrer, du moins en apparence, dans sa substance, et sans emettre de rameaux, des 

 filets nerveux appartenant egalement au systeme sympathique." 



Passing on to the interrenal, Chevrel says, "A l'etat frais, les elements propres de ce 

 corps disparaissent sous une couche de globules clairs, legerement teintes, qui lui 

 donnent une couleur jaunatre particuliere." Leydig thought these globules to be fat. 

 Balfour, on the contrary, thought they were not fat. Chevrel is of the latter opinion, 

 since ether does not dissolve them, nor osmic acid blacken them to any extent. He 

 proceeds to describe their microscopical structure as being much the same as that of the 

 suprarenals. The chief differences, according to him, are — (1) Inequality in size of 

 nuclei (10 p in "inter," 9 iji, in "supra"). (2) Absence in the suprarenal of the clear 

 globules which the interrenal contains in abundance. (3) A distinct division some- 

 times, in the case of the interrenal, into " capsules ou vesicules nettementj marquee." 

 (4) A less abundant vascular supply in the interrenal. 



Chevrel does not think there is any very direct connection between the interrenal 

 and the suprarenals, and notes that the " interrenal " has no relations with the 

 sympathetic. He does not decide whether the interrenal body is of a different order 

 of structure from the suprarenals. As to the connection between the suprarenals and 

 the small sympathetic ganglia, he states, " This connection in the case of the smaller 

 bodies is not so frequent as Leydig, Semper, and Balfour imagined." 



Chevrel has also more recently (4) given an account of the sympathetic system in 

 the Sturgeon. He gives a drawing of the relations of the suprarenal bodies to 

 the sympathetic nervous system, and also a very unsatisfactory representation of the 

 microscopical structure of the ganoid suprarenal 1 . 



1 [Since this was written, the papers of V. Diamare (" Eieerche intorno all' Organo interrenale degli Elasmo- 

 branchi col ai Corpuscoli di Stannius dei Teleostei" etc., Mem. matem.-fis. ser. 3, t. s. 3 tav., 1S96) and 

 Pettit (These, ' Eecherches sur les capsules surrenales,' Paris, 1896) have appeared. 



These will be briefly referred to again, as occasion requires, in later footnotes. — S. V., 10. 1. 97.] 



vol. xiv. — part in. No. 2. — April, 1897. h 



