i88 7 .] 
A Protandric Hermaphrodite. 
17 
Since this memoir by CUNNINGHAM, no paper of importance 
cencerning the sexual organs of Myxine has appeared. 
At a meeting of the Nederl. Dierkundige Véreenigung (Febru- 
ary 26, 1887) Prof. Max Weber made a communication on the 
subject of the sexual organs of Myxine, and in it he, essentially, 
describes the results of the papers of Cunningham and W. Muller 
only; the last-named writer's paper having escaped Cunningham' s 
notice. 
In consequence of this communication, several papers were 
written by Cunningham and Weber in Zool. Anz. (No. 250, 253, 
256. 1887). As those papers are principally of personal interest to 
the writers, we will pay no special attention to them here; what they 
contain of general interest is already mentioned in the foregoing. 
Report of my Investigations. 
Like the zoologist mentioned above, I have found that true 
males are extremely rare in Myxine. Out of several hundred spec- 
imens examined, I have recognized only very few males, and even 
those were unripe. The male organs are, usually, easy to distin- 
guish from the ovaries; they are generally lobate, have a milky 
whitish colour — especially in somewhat mature state — whilst the ova- 
ries are more translucent. Small nodules are visible in both, but the 
nodules of the testes (i. e. the sperma-follicles) are smaller, and 
whiter, than the nodules of the ovaries (i. e. the young ova). In 
quite an early stage there is, however, little difference between 
testes and ovaries; they have the same translucent appearance, and 
are developed only on the right side of the straight intestine. As 
stated by previous authors, the testis, as well as the ovary, is secured 
by a membrane (mesorchium, mesoarium) to the mesentery, at the 
point where it is fastened to the intestine (vide Pl. I & Pl. II, fig. 
7—9)- 
The minute structure of the male organs will, subsequently, be 
described; but we will first examine their occurrence and extension* 
A feature which attracted my attention on the first superficial 
examination of the testes of the few true males I had been able 
to recognize was, that the testes were usually much more developed 
and prominent at their posterior than at their anterior end. The 
