194 REMOKA, OR SUCKING FISH. 



to tlie bottoms of vessels ; but wlietlier for protection, 

 or conveyance, or both, is a question wliich has not been 

 satisfactorily ascertained. 



EEMORA {Common remora, Echineis r.mora). 



The sucking apparatus is thus described in the 



catalogue of the Eoyal College of Surgeons, specimen 



2081a: 



" The suctorial disk, removed from the head of a 



larger species of remora (Echineis uaucrates Linnaiiis). 



The disk is an oval flattened surface, composed of a 



series of transverse laminas directed backwards, and 



denticulated or spinous at their posterior margin ; the 



laminae are movable, and when recumbent are raised 



and fixed on a foreign substance, a vacuum is produced 



in their interspaces, and the fish adheres firmly to the 



body to which the disk is attached, until it voluntarily 



retracts the circumference of the disk, destroys the 



vacuum, and depresses the laminas, which then, from 



their peculiar arrangement, present little or no obstacle 



to the progress of the fish through the water/' 



Many of my readers are not probably aware that 



the remora has been used as the symbol of prudence. 



The great west window of New College Chapel, Oxford, 



contained seven allegorical pictures, after designs by 



Sir J. Eeynolds, representing the four cardinal and 



three Christian virtues, namely. Temperance — with 



water and a bridle at her feet ; Fortitude — in armour ; 



Foith — with a cross; Charity — with poor children; 



