of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



229 



Turner,^ and in so able a manner that I cannot do better than quote 

 his words. ' The stomach possessed the " siphonal " form met with in so 

 ' many hsh, but the pyloric tube, instead of arising directly from the great 

 ' sac of the organ, as is the case in the Selache maxima and various other 



* sharks, proceeded from a " pyloric compartment." Its opening into this 

 ' compartment was so constricted that I at first regarded it as the propet 

 ' pyloric orifice, and it was not until I had slit open both the pyloric tube 

 ' and the duodenum, that I recognised the former to be, not thfe cow- 

 .' mencement of the intestine, but the tubular pyloric teraiinatioti of . thie 

 ' Btomach. . • - • . - ; - 



' The cylindrical duodenum, its very considerable length, and the 

 ' absence of any dilatation, such as constitutes the Bursa entiana ipvo- 

 ' perly so called, formed most important features of difference between 

 ' this fish and the sharks generally. The cylindrical form resembled 

 ' indeed the duodenum of the sturgeon, though it did not possess tha]b 

 ' double turn which Carus has figured in the intestinal tube of the latter 

 ' fish. The coexistence of a well- developed pancreas, with two large ceeca 

 'opening into the commencement of the duodenum, is an anatomical 

 ' arrangement which had not previously been recognised in the plagioatof 

 viuata- If we are to regard these coeca as homologous with the pyloric 



* coeca in osseous fishes — and their relations to the duodenum, bQth as 

 ' regards their situation at its pyloric end, and the continuity and ?trtic- 

 '-tural coi-cespondence of their coats with the serous, muscular •and mucou$ 

 '^poats of the intestine point of this homology— r- then a .most important 



* piece of evidence is furnished against the view so generally entertained 



* by anatomists that the pyloric coeca . are the homologUeis ;)0| iJiU* 



* pancreas.' ■. ; : ' > 



The mucous membrane lining the stomach was : ipuckered into a 

 series of convoluted folds. The pyloric tube opening from the 'pyloric 

 compartment ' of the stomach was from three-qnartet"s of an inch to ari; 

 inch in diameter, by about six inches in length, and so United to the short 

 ccecum that the two could not be distinguished by an external •, yiewj 

 This shark seems to feed largely on fish; but a porpoise,; 'and .gre&Jijpieces 

 of whale blubbei" have been taken from its stomach. ■ ' , ' - • (' - nv 



In "tracing the duodenum onwards, it wafe seen to become contracted 

 before passing into the spiral valve. This contraction was itself a vaive^ 

 whose muscular walls were so thick as only to admit the tip of one's, little 

 finger. The spiral valve or colon took thirty-two turns before passing into 

 a «hort muscular rectum, to which a somewhat small rectal gland was 

 attached. The liver was divided into two lobes, which extended th^ 

 entire length of the abdominal cavity (nearly 6J feet). Imbiedded in ,the 

 root of the left lobe was the gall bladder, an almond-shaped organ 

 inches long. . • Mnf 



The specimen was a female. The ovaries, were about 21 inches in 

 length and situated in the anterior portion of the abdominal canty. They^ 

 were divided transversely into a number of lobes. The capsule of some 

 of these lobes was exceedingly thin, or even appeared to be absent, reveal- 

 ing numbers of eggs lying in the stroma, varying in size from small shot 

 to large peas. The oviducts have a common funnel-shaped opening above 

 the oesophagus, as in the skates. They extend, one on either side of the 

 middle line, the whole extent of the abdominal cavity. There is no trace 

 of an oviducal gland; but after passing the level of the ovaries, the oviducts 

 dilate slightly, forming a pair of structures resembling uteri. The dilata- 

 tion was not great, but the ovaries were unripe. Laemargus is in all 



* Journal of Anatomy and Physiohgy^ vol. vn. lib, ■ fi m^d^ 



