SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 305 



shrimp-trawl worked in shallow water near Morecambe, 

 and sent to me. This specimen had both eyes affected 

 in the manner described by GKinther and Fulton. 



These are the only instances of this affection of the 

 eye which, so far as I am aware, have been observed. 

 Although the fish has been known for a long time on the 

 coasts of Scandinavia, and has since been found on most 

 of the coasts of the British Isles, the eye parasites have 

 only been found on the West Coast of Britain. Probably 

 the specimen found at Morecambe is one of many which 

 have migrated into the Irish sea through the North 

 Channel. 



Fig. 1, pi. IX represents the head of the specimen 

 (twice natural size). The eye is perhaps larger than in 

 normal specimens. Round the peripheral part of the 

 cornea, and covered loosely by conjunctiva are a number 

 of milk-white rounded or oval bodies, from about 1 to 

 3 mm. in diameter. Several of these have fused to form 

 elongated masses, which take the curvature of the 

 periphery of the eye. Growing out from the lower 

 margins of this ring is a botryoidal mass of similar 

 material which encroaches on the pupil. When one of 

 the eyes was removed it was seen that these adventitious 

 structures had invaded the lateral and posterior parts of: 

 the bulbus oculi. 



These structures remind one of pustules. When 

 pricked (in the fresh condition) a thick, white, pus-like 

 substance could be squeezed out. But when a trace of 

 this was examined under even a low power of the 

 microscope it was immediately seen that the structure was 

 a Myxosporidian cyst. The " fine granules " filling up 

 the interior were spores containing two polar capsules, 

 and in some cases, two polar filaments were seen under a 

 high power. 



