120 The Life Story of the Fish 



ently not so keen in fish as in some of the higher animals. 

 The other is that the brain of the fish, lacking the cerebral 

 cortex of which we spoke, fails to provide a home for the 

 conscious association of ideas, and therefore robs pain of an 

 imagination to work on. The well-known and authentic tale 

 of the fish which was caught with its own eye illustrates both 

 my points. This poor fish was foul-hooked, and the only 

 way to remove the hook was to remove one of the eyes. 

 The fisherman decided he did not want his catch, and re- 

 placed it in the water. It then occurred to this man, who 

 must have been of an experimental turn of mind, to see how 

 good a bait the eye might be, so he placed it on the hook 

 and dropped it in the water, to pull out a few minutes later 

 the very fish from which the eye had been taken. Now, dis- 

 regarding its failure to recognize its own eye, which is hardly 

 surprising in view of the fact that it had never seen it before, 

 the points to bear in mind are these: first, that a very short 

 time after the removal of the eye its pain from that oper- 

 ation was so unimportant that it was out and about prospect- 

 ing for food J and second, that the pain which had resulted 

 from taking into its mouth a bait on a hook on a line made 

 so little impression on its mind that it did the same thing 

 again a very few moments afterward. Number one, physical 

 sensation of pain not very keenj number two, mental im- 

 pression of pain not very keen or else very quickly forgotten. 

 And pain that is forgotten is no longer pain. 



Naturally fishes vary, not only as between individuals but 

 also as between species. Some are more sensitive than others, 

 some learn more than others. But at best fishes are reflex 

 animals. There are no inhibitions, no moments of hesitation 

 to think about the desirability of doing or not doing a given 

 thing. The sight of food means open the mouth and snatch, 

 the sight of a larger enemy means run and hide, each with- 

 out stopping to consider whether the food is really beneficial 



