128 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. — 
two orders, and he asserts* that in males of Box boops 
and Pagellus erythrinus having ‘‘no trace of an ovary,” 
the ‘‘oviduct’’ is still present in the shape of a closed 
tube, around which ‘“‘ vasa efferentia’’ are arranged as 
is the case with hermaphrodite individuals of the allied 
species.’ He concludes ‘‘that the occurrence of this 
vestigial ‘‘ oviduct’ in individuals otherwise by no means 
bisexual, affords strong proof in favour of the interpreta- 
tion that hermaphroditism was originally a commonly 
occurring phenomenon in the order Sparide; and alsot 
that ‘‘in the hermaphroditism of fishes we have to deal not 
with an abnormal condition, making its appearence in few 
cases, but, rather, with one, which, for most members of 
a large section of these animals, is perfectly normal.” 
While he sums up the shorter communication, { in which he 
controverts the conception of homology between the genital 
ducts of both sexes of Teleostei and those of other verte- 
brates, by saying that it 1s to him ‘“‘ extremely probable 
that those who endeavour to establish homologies for the 
outgoing ducts of Teleosteans will finally have to reckon 
with the hermaphrodite Percids and Sparids.”” More than 
this I, personally, could not have desired. It will, I trust, 
be admitted that the facts,above cited are of primary 
importance; and that, notwithstanding the great advance 
in the skeletal anatomy of the bony fishes, the Marsipo- 
branchii are to be referred to a nearer kinship with them 
than with all other fishes extant. And it is worthy of 
remark that if the Teleostean and Ganoidean types are 
inseparably related, as Huxley has so long insisted,§ the 
* Staats Courant, June, 1890, pp. 1—4. 
+ Handelg. v. h. 34¢ Natuuren geneesk. Congres. Utrecht. April, 1891. 
+ Dr. Hoek informs me, by letter, that he is preparing an extensive work 
upon this subject. 
§ cf. especially Proc. Zool. Soc,, Lond., 1880, p. 661, and 1883, p. 139. 
