SUPRAPEINIAL BODIES IN PISHES. 63 



surface, at the extreme hinder end of the kidney. They were packed close together in the 

 middle line, the right one being about 2'5 mm. by 2, and the left being about 2 by 1. 



Here, as well as in Mullus barbatus, we have a proportionately large amount of 

 suprarenal tissue associated with a deeply pigmented peritoneum. 



Discoboli. — I have only so far been able to examine one specimen of Cyclopterus 

 lumpus (PI. XIII. fig. 40). This fish was 46*25 cm. in length. The suprarenals were 

 situated on the spinal surface of the kidney. The central point of the left was 3 cm. 

 from the hinder end of the kidney, that of the right was 3-75 cm. distant. The right 

 body was rounded and about 4-5 mm. in diameter, the left was oval (5 mm. by 2*5 mm.). 



It will have been seen from the above account that in the Teleosts / find suprarenal 

 bodies in all fresh specimens examined. There are usually paired, round or oval, 

 pale pink bodies, placed on the spinal or ventral surface of the kidney. They are near 

 the posterior extremity of the renal mass and are either free on its surface or more or 

 less imbedded in its substance. 



4. DIPNOI. 

 Nothing is known of the suprarenal capsules in this order of fishes. At any rate 

 they are not described in Lepidosiren (9) 1 ; in Ceraiodus (8) and in Protopterus their 

 presence is exceedingly doubtful 2 . However, what has to be said on this head will be 

 stated below in the histological section (V.). 



Having thus reviewed the gross anatomy of the suprarenal bodies in the orders I 

 have examined, a few general remarks must be here interpolated. Being unable to 

 obtain fresh specimens of any of the Dipnoi, I will leave this order quite out of the 

 question 2 . In Elasmobranchs, Ganoids, and Teleosts, suprarenals have long been 

 described, but never very systematically or connectedly. This I have endeavoured to 

 do as far as possible in the above account. That there was need of this is clear from 

 the fact that some zoologists of standing still seem largely to ignore their existence. 

 Thus Beard (2), in his very interesting paper, says : — " Not one of the least brilliant 

 of Mihalkovics' discoveries is that of the relationship between the reproductive gland 

 and the suprarenal bodies 3 . Mihalkovics showed that the non-nervous part of these 

 organs is the most anterior portion of the reproductive gland, and that in those animals 

 in which suprarenals occur the germinal cells which give rise to them have under- 

 gone degeneration and have got separated off from the rest of the germinal epithelium 

 as a mass of cells remaining in a so-called embryonic state." 4 This may be true enough, 



1 See also Ehlers, E., " Zur Kenntnis der Eingenweide von Lepidosiren," Vorlaufige Mittheilung, Nachrichten 

 der k. Gesellsehaft der "Wissenschaften zu Gottingen, Math.-physik. Klasse, 1895, Nr. 1. 



2 See footnote 2, page 73. 



3 It is noteworthy in this relation that in the Eeptilia the suprarenal body is most often in very close 

 relationship with the reproductive gland. The same applies to birds. 



1 [It may be observed, by the way, that the medulla is probably not " nervous," and that the cortex is certainly 

 not " embryonic."— S. V., 10. 1. 97.] 



