of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



55 



there was much fibrous stroma-like tissue along the suture. Its presence 

 makes the tracing of any openings of the vasa deferentia into the 

 ovary difficult. The two wide vasa were soon lost. A section through the 

 skin further down showed the blood-vessels and some slit-like vessels or 

 lacunae on either side. The actual entrance of the vasa deferentia into the 

 ovary was not made out. 



Another section (fig. 55) was made across the union of the ovaries. Ore 

 large vas deferens enclosing some white matter was prominent. On the 

 opposite side there was a number of lacunae. 



I am of the opinion that all these long chambers open eventually into the 

 ovarian cavity. One or two that were followed by means of a bristle did so. 



A second hermaphrodite reproductive organ was presented by Mr. R. 

 Thompson. The cod was caught in the trawl off the West Coast of 

 Scotland on April 3, 1910. 



The roe is shown in fig. 54. One ovary, the left, was full-sized, measur- 

 ing 11 J inches, while the right one was only 5| inches long. Attached to 

 the latter was a fairly large milt. 



Both ovary and testis were ripe. Quite half of the eggs in the small ovary 

 were clear. 



Fig. 71 shows a section through the stalk connecting the testis and ovary. 

 Vasa deferentia are seen in the middle region, flanked on either side by a 

 pair of blood-vessels. The honeycombed vas deferens evidently opened into 

 the ovary. 



Mr. Thompson was able to record another hermaphrodite cod which had 

 been captured at Lossiemouth on March 1, 1910. 



There is little doubt that in the two cases described above, both the ovary 

 and testis were functional. While in the first case the testis was apparently 

 in advance of the ovary, in the second the two organs were ripe simul- 

 taneously. In the latter case there does not seem to be anything to prevent 

 self-fertilisation. 



In the Report of the Fishery Board for 1905, I recorded* several cases of 

 hermaphroditism in the cod, and I referred to some previous records of this 

 condition in Gadoids. I omitted, however, the case in the haddock (Gadus 

 cegleftnus) described by Ramsay Smith. t In it the ovary and the testis 

 appeared to be developing pari passu. 



Johnstone£ has published an account of the hermaphrodite condition in 

 the Hake {Merluccius vulgaris). 



A Peculiar Cod (Gadus callarias) from Loch Fyne. 



A cod measuring 82 cm. in length was kindly sent by Mr. Dan M'Lachlan, 

 who attended the course of instruction for fishermen in 1909. 



The fish attracted attention from its apparently abnormal shape. Its head 

 was said to resemble that of a ling (Molua molva). It is shown reduced in 

 fig. 19. 



The external colouration was normal. The ovary was large, and it was 

 not pigmented. The number of vertebrae was 52, quite an usual number. 

 I found nothing abnormal in the head or skull. The teeth were said to be 

 larger than might be expected in a cod of this size. I found, however, that 

 they resembled much the teeth in some skeletons of this fish. In the latter 

 the teeth were not quite so stout, although equally long. But that fact 

 might be accounted for by the drying of the skull. 



* "On Two Cases of Hermaphroditism in the Cod {Gadus callarias). Twenty- 

 fourth Annual Report of the Fishery Board for Scotland for 1905, Part HI., 1906, 

 p. 290. 



t "A Case ot Hermaphroditism in the Haddock." Ninth Annual Report of the 

 Fishery Board for Scotland, Pt. III. , p. 352. 



% "An Hermaphrodite Hake." No. XV. Report for 1906 on the Lancashire Sea- 

 Fisheries Laboratory and Sea-Fish Hatchery. Liverpool, 1907, p. 209'. 



