494 DR DAVY’S FRAGMENTARY NOTES ON THE 
weighed, with its embryo, 3 oz. 6§ drs.; the weight of the embryo detached was 
3 drs. and 11 grs. The gills were no longer naked, and they were without 
filaments ; one embryo was opened. The substance of the egg was found pass- 
ing into the intestine though a straight canal. The intestine was distended with 
a greenish matter, coloured by bile. The ovum presented a beautiful vascular 
appearance. 
On the 9th of the same month another specimen was obtained. Two ova, with 
their embryos, were found in one uterine cavity, one only in the other. All the 
eggs were broken but one. It, with its embryo, weighed 3 oz. 3} drs.; the 
embryo alone weighed 1 dr. The branchial filaments were short, but distinct. 
The stomach was very small and empty. A little greenish matter was found in 
the intestine. A considerable quantity of fluid, as usual, was found in each 
uterine cavity, and of its ordinary appearance, clear and transparent, and 
colourless, and slightly saline to the taste; a portion of it evaporated yielded a 
considerable quantity of coagulated albumen; washed with alcohol, the solution 
obtained slowly evaporated, frothed at a temperature considerably below the 
boiling point, giving the idea of the presence of urea. When evaporated to a 
moderate degree of consistence, a drop of strong nitric acid was added, an imme- 
diate formation of white matter took place: this at the time I supposed to be 
nitrate of urea, as it dissolved on the addition of a little water, and as, when 
evaporated in its turn, a solid matter appeared in minute white scales, here and 
there giving off gas from decomposition: with these scales were intermixed a few 
minute prismatic crystals. 
On the 8th February, the last specimen of which I have to make mention was 
obtained. ‘This was a fish of about two feet in length. The oviducts, with the 
uterine cavities, formed a complete circle. The uterine cavities were thin, dis- 
tended, and vascular, and were lined with much thick mucus or mucus-like 
matter. They contained each a single foetus. Each foetus was about six inches 
long, and appeared pretty perfect in form. The eggs were still large; one foetus 
was opened. A yolk-sac was found in the cavity of the abdomen, freely com- 
municating with the outer yolk, and with the upper part of the intestine. The 
intestine was distended with the substance of the yolk, which in its lower 
portion was of an orange hue. One of the young fish was in part corroded, as if 
by the action of the fluid with which it was in contact: it showed no signs of 
putridity. 
2. Of the Squalus Galeus.—The only notes of the generative organs of this species 
which I have were made in Malta, and are very brief. On the 25th January . 
a female was procured from the market. Its uterine cavities were semi-transpa- _ 
rent, and lined with a very vascular chorion. Each cavity contained three young 
fish; and each of these was included in a very delicate membrane, together with = 
some gelatinous fluid. There was no appearance of an internal yolk; but to each @ | 

