436 Wyman's Observations on 



half to nine and a half inches in length, the females being 

 much longer than the males. 



I. The smallest female measured three and a half inches 

 in length, but on careful examination no traces of an ovary 

 were discovered ; its development did not appear to have 

 commenced as yet. 



II. The next specimen measured seven inches in length, 

 and the ovary was in a state of gestation ; the foetuses, four 

 or five in number, measured but five-eighths of an inch. The 

 ovary appeared single externally ; was invested with perito- 

 neum, which was supported by a more firm but thin mem- 

 brane of condensed areolar tissue ; on cutting through this, 

 the interior was found filled with sacs corresponding in num- 

 ber to the foetuses, and united to each other and the ovarian 

 walls by a very loose areolar tissue. They had no communi- 

 cation of any kind with each other. With the aid of the 

 point of a needle the sacs were easily detached and removed 

 entire with the inclosed foetus ; the envelope was much larger 

 than was necessary to hold the embryo, and the space between 

 the two was filled with a fluid, a portion of which (albumen ?) 

 had been coagulated by the action of the alcohol. In each 

 instance it was ascertained that the young had no connection 

 whatever, vascular or otherwise, with the walls of the sac 

 which inclosed it. 



The external characters of the embryo, (PI. 17, Fig. 5,) 

 even at this early stage, as regards its general form and the 

 fins, resemble those of the adult ; but no longitudinal black 

 bands were yet visible on the sides ; the eye had not acquired 

 the prominence of the adult, the cornea was not divided by a 

 transverse band, and the pupil existed in the form of an oval, 

 with its long diameter in a vertical direction, but the sides of 

 the iris had just commenced extending towards the centre in 

 order to form the two laminee, which, in the adult, give the 

 pupil its singular shape. The umbilical sac forms a spheroidal 

 mass about one fourth of an inch in diameter, and is suffi- 

 ciently transparent to allow the folds of the intestine which fill 



