i88 7 .] 
A Protandric Hermaphrodite. 
23 
ductive organ of the hermaphrodite-males. When we now con- 
sider, that there are hermaphrodite-males with no distinct demarca- 
tion between the male and female portion of the reproductive 
organ, but where ova and testicular capsules are intermixed for 
some distance in the boundary region (cf. No. 3 of the series above 
and fig. 6) and when we, further, consider that in some herma- 
phrodite-males testicular capsules occur intermixed with ova along 
the whole length of the anterior (» female «) portion of the repro- 
ductive organ (cf. no. 5 of the series above) it seems, in my opinion, 
that we are entitled to conclude that the reproductive organs of 
the latter specimens form transition-stages between those of the 
hermaphrodites and those of the »true« males, and that, conse- 
quently, the reproductive organs of the males and those of the 
hermaphrodites are the same organs; the anterior (»female«) portion 
of the organ produces, in the males, only male reproductive elements, 
instead of ova as it originally does in the hermaphrodite. The 
males are thus, in reality, not »true« males, but are probably trans- 
formed hermaphrodites, and in that fact we have also the reason 
why they occur so seldom. 
Upon the whole, it must be admitted that there is a strange 
irregularity in the occurrence and extension of the male and 
female organs in Myxine. Myxine seems to me to be an animal 
which, in sexual respects, is just at present in a transition-stage; 
from what and to what, it is however not easy to say. It seems 
still to be seeking, without yet reaching, that mode af reproduction 
which is most profitable for it in the struggle for existence. 
The Structure of the Male Organs. 
The male organ forms, as we have shown, in most individuals 
of Myxine, a direct continuation of the female organ, it being the 
posterior portion of the generative organ or membrane, if we may 
call it so. The male organ has a structure which is, in most respects, 
quite analogous to that of the female organ; it consists of a thin 
flat mesorchium, the free border of which is thickened, distinctly 
lobate, has, in fresh individuals, a whitish colour, and contains a 
number of testicular or spermatic capsules, generally situated close 
