500 DR DAVY’S FRAGMENTARY NOTES ON THE 
dissection), communicated with the cloaca through a papilla, the rudimentary 
penis. The spermatozoa were all similar. Many of them were collected ina 
cluster. They were all motionless in fresh water and in brine; but in salt water 
—that of the Bosphorus*—many of them were active. They were found to vary 
in length from about stx to 4s. ofaninch. The diameter of the rounded extremity 
was about 2070 of aninch.t The anal appendages were large, and proportionally 
thick. Each communicated with a subcutaneous sac similar to that of S: 
acanthias. The cavity of each was about an inch long, and follicular. The appen- 
dages, in their general structure, were “‘ similar to those of the rays and squali.” 
In my “ Researches Physiological and Anatomical,” when treating of the male 
organs of cartilaginous fishes, I ventured to offer the conjecture—an old opinion— 
that the anal appendages, the characteristic of the male fish, are designed for the 
purpose of intromission in the performance of the generative act, and I then quoted 
a passage from Aristotle to the same effect : “Sunt qui se vidisse confirmant non 
nulla in cartilagineis aversa modo canum terrestrium coheerere.” In examining 
these two fishes, I found what appeared to me to be circumstances favourable to the 
above supposition. In the instance of the male, the generative organs, as described, 
were clearly in the condition required at the breeding season. Those of the female 
were found to be so also. The female, about one-third larger than the male exclu- 
sive of the anal appendages, was similar to it in form and appearance. The cloaca, 
the common opening,—that in which the intestine and uterine cavities terminated, 
—was sufficiently large to admit the appendages; and it is worthy of remark, that 
the part was slightly lacerated at its superior commissure; also, that the mouths 
of the uterine cavities were protruding, and were very red and vascular. Within 
the cloaca, between the two uterine openings, above the opening into the intes- 
tine, was a clitoris, if I may so call a vascular conical projection, of about one- 
eighth of an inch in length, through which was a passage from the urinary bladder. 
The bladder was of a globular form, and pretty large; two ureters terminated 
in it, at its upper end. The ovaries contained ova of different sizes, the largest 
about the size of a boy’s playing marble, They were enveloped in a delicate 
vascular membrane. Their contents were of a soft consistence, like the yolk of 
the ege of the common fowl, and of a light cream colour. Above the liver was 
situated the infundibulum of the oviducts. These ducts were thin and plicated. 
About two inches above the uterine cavities, on each side, was a glandular body, 
forming a part of the oviduct. The uterine cavities were long, wide, and capacious. 
Their superior opening was small, their inferior large. Their inner surface was 
red, and covered with villi—these about a quarter of an inch long; they were 
well displayed by immersion of the part in water. Both the oviducts were empty, . 
* This water is less salt than that of the sea—the Mediterranean and ocean—nearly the same 
as that of the Euxine. I have found it of sp, gr. 1012, that of the Euxine being 1011. 
t See Plate XXII, fig. 9 

