THE FEELERS OF THE BARBED MULLET 



plankton and, like its fellows, feeds upon tiny floating 

 creatures. This period is one of active dispersion and 

 continual raiding in all directions. Then, gradually- 

 growing longer and thicker, it becomes heavier and 

 finds it harder to remain afloat in the water. Its feelers 

 become distinct and more formed. Little by little, it 

 allows itself to sink, gives up the surface zones and goes 

 to deep water, settles down on the bottom. It loses its 

 blue coloration, and the red pigment appears. The 

 final, adult stage begins to set in. The frail, minute fry, 

 which used to be blue and white, dashing about the 

 surface waters, has become a fish of sedentary habit, 

 brown and purple in hue, established on the bottom, 

 a delver in the mud, a stirrer up of the sand, all as a 

 result of the gustatory feelers it has underneath its short 

 chin. 



This strange episode is, however, only an instance of a 

 story which could be told of all creatures that live in the 

 waters. They are surrounded by taste-impulses as land 

 animals are surrounded by scents. Their aquatic en- 

 vironment is a world of taste as our environment is a 

 world of smell. The water holds in solution or in 

 suspension substances which can produce sensations of 

 taste as the air has mixtures of gases which also can be 

 perceived by the sense of smell. These two ways of 

 receiving sense impressions are equivalent and result in 

 an identity of response. 



In order to understand the situation properly, we 

 must first consider what happens in ourselves and in the 

 animals which, like us, live in the air. We have two 

 kinds of sensation, smell and taste, and two organs 

 which are concerned with them, the nose and mouth. 

 The nasal cavities receive odorous emanations directly 

 from the outside world, their origin often being remote. 

 They accept these sensations in a gaseous state, mingled 

 with the air we breathe; the sensation is one arising at 

 a distance, a telasthesia. 



The mouth is different. The tongue has taste-buds 



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