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II. On the different types in the microscopic structure of the skeleton of osseous fishes

1859; Royal Society; Volume: 9; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1098/rspl.1857.0132

2053-9126

Albert Kölliker,

Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology

After having been occupied for several months with observations on the minute structure of the bones of fishes, I now take the liberty to present the results of my studies to the Royal Society. The principal fact which I have to mention is, that a great many genera of osseous fishes possess no bone-corpuscles, radiated or fusi­form, in their skeleton, and therefore no real osseous tissue . That there exist fish-bones without bone-corpuscles must have been long known in England to those who have collections of microscopic pre­parations of the hard tissues of animals, as Owen, Tomes, Williamson, Quekett, and others; but nobody seems to have mentioned the fact before Williamson, Quekett, Dr. Mettenheimer of Frankfort, and myself. In the year 1850 Professor Williamson pointed out the absence of bone-corpuscles from the bones of the Cod, Haddock, Perch, Plaice, Pike, and various other fish, distinguishing them in this respect from the hones of the Eel, in which such corpuscles are abundan; in 1853 I made known that the bones of Leptocephalus and Helmichthys contain no trace of bone-corpuscles ; a year later, Mettenheimer showed that the same was true of the bones of Tetragonurus Cuvieri ; and in 1855 Quekett mentions, in the second volume of the ‘Histological Catalogue of the College of Surgeons of England,’ fishes belonging to eighteen genera, in the bones of which he had not succeeded in finding bone-corpuscles—viz. Vogmarus islandicus, Lophius piscatorius, Gadus morrhua, Ephippus, Sparus, Trigla cuculus, Belone vulgaris, Pleuronectes platessa, Trachinus vipera, Orthagoriscus mola, Exocœt Scarus, Esox, Sphyrœna barracuda, Tetrapturus, Zeus faber, Perca fluviatilis, Gobio fluviatilis . But, notwithstanding these most valuable observations, little or no progress seems to have been made in the more general treat­ment of this matter, as is best shown by the ‘Comparative Histology’ of Leydig (1857), in which (p. 157) the Leptocephalidœ, Tetragonurus , and Orthagoriscus are the only cases mentioned, in which the radiated bone-corpuscles are wanting.