of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



393 



capsule, though its outer layers could be peeled off easily, coming away as 

 fibrous lamellae. On section the specimen, which had been preserved in 

 spirit, appeared white towards the centre, and dull grey towards the 

 periphery, where were also thickly distributed minute black spots. The 

 mass was externally firm and elastic, becoming more loose and soft 

 internally. The fibrous structure appeared to run mostly in the long axis 

 of the tumour. Microscopic examination showed externally very close and 

 firm fibres, normal in appearance, running in nearly straight bundles, with 

 a slightly wavy course, and long nuclei at intervals. Towards the centre 

 were swollen fibres, much more loosely arranged, with very rare nuclei, 

 many of which were evidently undergoing degeneration. The fibres here 

 ran a very various course, passing in bundles curved in different directions. 

 At several places among the fibres, but chiefly externally, were small pig- 

 ment granules, here and there heaped together. There was no trace of 

 calcification. Among the fibrous bundles were masses of epithelioid 

 cells, with large nuclei closely packed together. These apparently ran as 

 more or less regular cylinders, as in section the epithelial masses were 

 always circular or more or less extended ellipses. Among the epithelioid 

 cells were large deposits of pigment, including some perfect chroma- 

 tophores, large and freely branched (Plate XII. fig. 2). Some of these 

 epithelial masses show degeneration marked by indistinctness of the nuclei. 

 On the whole the fibrous tissue preponderates largely, the epithelioid masses 

 being small ami distant from one another. Though they form a consider- 

 able element in the mass, yet the regular form of the tumour, and the 

 distinctness with which it is marked off from the surrounding tissues, give 

 the whole tumour much more the appearance of a fibroma than of an 

 epithelioma. 



4. Parasitic Skin Disease in Montagu's Sucker. By George Sande- 

 man, St Andrews Marine Laboratory. 



The fish affected was a well-formed female specimen of 2J inches long, 

 and full of eggs. The skin over a large part of the body was abnormally 

 light, being of a greyish-yellow colour. Here and there were distributed 

 spots of about 1 mm. in size, which were quite white. On removing a 

 portion of skin, it was found that the affected parts were abnormally 

 opaque, and that the chromatophores were more contracted than those on 

 healthy parts (Plate XVII. fig. 6). When first examined, little white masses 

 like grains of millet seed occurred in the tissues. There were present 

 on the surface of the skin irregular bodies surrounded by small round 

 spores. These bodies appeared to be made up of a number of spherical 

 masses in some cases, and in others to be due to closely apposed 

 bundles of long rod-like elements. On section the skin was normal, 

 except for the presence at places of a very thick cuticle, which in some 

 cases passed down in processes into the cutis, and for the presence in 

 some parts of a considerable number of fat globules in the inner layers of 

 the skin. Passing through the skin in various directions were found 

 rod-like bodies of varying length, ranging from 4 ^ to long fibres of half 

 a millimetre. They appeared in some cases to branch. Sometimes they 

 did not stain deeply with carmine, but as a rule took up the stain and 

 remained colourless ;it intervals along the fibre (Plate XVII. fig. 7). The 

 coloured and uncoloured parts varied much in their relative lengths, even 



