the Salmon, Herring, and Vendace. 499 



jecting upwards, which, afterwards growing to so great an extent, forms a leading fea- 

 ture of 1 1 ic male fish. 



The person who could not discover the organs of generation in young salmon fourteen 

 inches long, and who supposed that in fish of that size they are not visible, was likely to 

 fall into other errors ; of which not the least remarkable is, the supposing that the pro- 

 jecting and upturned lower jaw of the male (which I find in the smolt six inches long), 

 so distinct, that it is always possible to discriminate male from female previous to their 

 heing opened, is so fashioned by the superior activity of the male fish during the spawn- 

 ing act, " which hardens the extremity of the mouth, and bends it into the form of a 

 hook." P. 145. 



Notions similar to these have of late years been very extensively spread. They reduce, 

 or attempt to reduce, the causes of animal structure to " animal mechanics," as if ani- 

 mals had originally been made by mechanics. It is a superficial philosophy, founded 

 mostly on low conceits, and calculated to make us believe that the animal structure of 

 each individual animal was particularly framed for itself alone, without a reference to 

 the place it holds in the animal creation ; with these persons the spleen passes as a soft 

 padding for other viscera*; the hook-like process of the salmon's jaw is produced by 

 hardening t, or is bestowed on it by Nature for the purpose of fashioning the spawning- 

 bed ; and the strong protuberance of the occipital-bone is given to man to protect the 

 head in falling backwards J-. NEWTON, who assuredly was no anatomist, understood 

 enough of the philosophy of animal structure, to perceive that all animals were formed 

 upon one general plan ; and HARVEY went much beyond this, since he first pointed out 

 an imposing and mysterious feature in this plan, viz. that most irregularities in human 

 structure were to be found in the lower animals. It was reserved for the present day, 

 and for our own times, to find out that the eyes of the horse are placed laterally, to 

 enable him to kick with effect , and that this is the cause why they are so placed : and 

 that blubber is given to the whale to make him buoyant ! why not for man to make oil 

 of? These attempts to reduce the " Science of Life," as physiology has been termed, 

 to a tissue of puerilities and conceits, may perhaps by some be deemed useful, by making 

 it popular ; but it is right that scientific men should be informed that such explanations 

 are refuted by the whole phenomena of living nature, and are unworthy the name of 

 scientific explanations. 



It were easy to shew here, in the examination of some statements made by practical 

 fishermen and others, that errors and misstatements regarding the most vital questions 

 in the natural history of the salmon, are contained in the Report. The Committee 

 proved, in an undeniable manner, that one practical fisher and tacksman of salmon fisheries 

 of vast extent, was so ignorant of every fact in natural history, that he mistook the 

 tape-worm (a parasite infesting certain parts of the intestinal tube of the salmon) for 

 the food of the salmon. Another also, a practical fisherman, in open defiance of truth 

 and daily observation, asserts that the true salmon lives on sand-eels and fry of other 

 fishes, a distinguished naturalist talks of salmon going into estuaries in search of wormi 



PALEY. t Sir H. DAVY. $ " Animal Mechanics." 



See The Anatomy of Expression in Painting by Sir C BELL. 

 VOL. XII. PART II. 3 S 



