CYPR1NID.K. 



" At Feriana, the ancient Thala," says Bruce, "are baths 

 of warm water without the town ; in these were a number 

 of fish, about four inches in length, not unlike Gudgeons. 

 Upon trying the heat by the thermometer, I remember to 

 have been much surprised that they could have existed, or 

 even not been boiled, by continuing so long in the heat of 

 this medium." 



" The facts mentioned by Sonnerat and other travellers 

 induced Broussonnet to make some experiments on the 

 degree of heat which river fish are capable of enduring. The 

 details of the degrees of heat are not stated, but many species 

 lived for several days in water which was so hot that the hand 

 could not be retained in it for a single minute." 



The five preceding notices are from Dr. Hodgkin's addi- 

 tions to the translation of Dr. W. F. Edwards's French 

 work " On the Influence of Physical Agents on Life." 



" In the thermal springs of Baliia in Brazil, many small 

 fishes were seen swimming in a rivulet which raises the ther- 

 mometer eleven and a half degrees above the temperature of 

 the air." 



" Humboldt and Bonpland, when travelling in South 

 America, perceived fishes thrown up alive, and apparently 

 in health, from the bottom of a volcano, in the course of its 

 explosions, along with water and heated vapour that raised 

 the thermometer to two hundred and ten degrees, being but 

 two degrees below the boiling point/' 



The power of fishes to sustain a low temperature is equally 

 extraordinary ; " for that these," says John Hunter, in his 

 Animal (Economy, " after being frozen, still retain so much 

 of life as when thawed to resume their vital actions, is a fact 

 so well attested that we are bound to believe it." 



" Perch have been frozen, and in this condition trans- 

 ported for miles. If, when in this state, fishes are placed 

 in water near a fire, they soon begin to exhibit symptoms 



