FISH IN GENERAL. 83 



more particularly. Fish may have teeth adhering to all the 

 bones which form the inner surface of the mouth and of the 

 pharynx ; they may be found on the intermaxillaries, the 

 maxillaries, the palatine, the vomer, the tongue, the branchial 

 arches, and the pharyngeals; there are even genera possessed 

 of teeth upon all these bones, either entirely similar, or partly 

 of different characters ; but several of these bones may be 

 without teeth, and there are also genera entirely deprived of 

 them. To indicate their position, they are denominated 

 intermaxillary, maxillary, mandibulary, vomerian, palatal, 

 pterygoidian, lingual, branchial, and superior and inferior 

 pharyngeal. In form they vary no less than in position, 

 requiring still more numerous distinctive appellations ; they 

 represent most commonly cones and hooks, more or less sharp. 

 When these hooks are numerous, and formed in several rows, 

 or in quincunx, they are said to be carded, or in cards; 

 they are often also subulate, and so close, as to offer to the 

 eye an idea of plush or velvet, and if they be at the same time 

 very short, they represent smooth velvet ; but if long and 

 flexible, they may be termed brushes; finally, very small and 

 short teeth, more readily detected by the touch than by the eye, 

 form simple asperities. Beside these kinds, there are sharp 

 teeth in the form of wedges, which may be serrated, or 

 fined to a point in the middle. Other teeth are round, 

 hemispherical, or oval. The round kinds may be disposed 

 in several rows, or closed so compactly as to resemble a 

 pavement, such as on the palate and tongue of glossodontes, 

 and jaws of thornback; others again are pointed, compressed, 

 and sharp-edged on both sides, as in trichiurus ; others with 

 the crown flattened, and embossed with raised lines, as in 

 the pharynx of carps ; or swelling into a clavate form, ob- 

 servable in other cyprini; and finally, teeth with a tubercular 

 crown, as observed in myletes. 



The teeth are always simple, reared upon a pulpy germ 



g 2 



