( S34 ) 
XIT.— Otz the Anatomical Peculiarities of the 
Sturgeon ; (Acipeiiser Sturio, L.) 
By David Ckaigie, M, D. Extraordinary Member, and 
formerly President, of the Royal Medical Society, Edin- 
burgh, 
( Read M April 
Having, through the kindness of Professor Jameson, en- 
joyed an opportunity of dissecting a specimen of the Stur- 
geon, I have reason to believe that an account of its ana- 
tomical peculiarities may not be entirely void of interest. 
This will appear so much more necessary when I state, 
that, notwithstanding the diligence with which comparative 
anatomy has been cultivated, no very satisfactory descrip- 
tion of the anatomy of the order of the finny tribes to 
which the sturgeon belongs has yet been given ; and the 
short notices which we find in the writings of the late Dr 
Monro and Sir Everard Home, are calculated rather to ex- 
cite than to gratify rational curiosity. 
The circumstances under which my examination of the 
animal took place, confined my inquiries chiefly to the ali- 
mentary canal and the urinary organs ; and to tliese, there- 
fore, the present notice shall principally refer. 
It may not be improper to premise, that the Sturgeon 
( Acipenser Sturio of the Linnean arrangement), is an inha- 
bitant of most of the large rivers of Europe and the north of 
3 
