On Proper Names, 287 



mighty masters of every department, that little is left in their 

 beaten tracks to be gleaned by the author of a short and inci- 

 dental essay. The present subject is one of those which, 

 though constantly before us, is little attended to — very familiar, 

 and yet, in many points, very recondite. The few individuals 

 who feel an interest in it will think, perhaps, that it has been 

 carelessly and cursorily treated, whilst others will wonder how 

 it ever came to be thought worth the pains of investigation.: 



Remarks on ike Composition of the Fin Rays and certain 

 -^ pther Parts in the Anatomy of Fishes, by Dr. J. Hancock, 

 Gorr. Memb. of the Zool. Soc, &c. &c. 



On a former occasion (p. 136 of the last number of this 

 Journal) I have alluded to the importance of the character 

 derived from the number of the rays in the fins of fishes, as 

 furnishing the best diagnostic marks for discriminating the 

 species ; the vast variety and the different combinations arising 

 from these numbers, seldom, if ever, failing to afford distinc- 

 tions, even in genera composed of the most numerous and 

 nearly allied species, and in which all other characters will be 

 found to fail of affording marks sufficiently clear and obvious. 



In a character of such value, therefore, it is proper to point 

 out the fallacies which from inadvertence may arise in its ap- 

 plicatioR. 



It is a circumstance which has not hitherto been duly noticed, 

 if at all, or which I had never before observed, that the pos- 

 terior or soft rays of the fins are generally double or twin, 

 consisting of two bone*» so accurately joined as to appear but 

 one ; they are easily separable however, so that the anato- 

 mist, on dissecting, might in some cases almost double their 

 number. They are placed (the two pieces) laterally with each 

 other, or side by side — never fore and aft. At their apophyses 

 or base, each twin ray sends off a projection sideways, to which 

 is attached a lateral tendon, — and below they are connected 

 with another series of similar bones, which proceed nwards, in 



U 2 



