Art. VI] Herrick, Tastc vi Fishcs. yi 



("tactile") reflex is less stable, and may be readily eliminated 

 by a simple course of training. Clearly the gustatory element 

 of the sensation complex resulting from a contact with a sapid 

 substance is more important than the tactile element. 



It is clear that in order to call forth the characteristic 

 "gustatory" reflex the stimulus must be quite strong and 

 rather sharply localized. For when there is only a small 

 amount of meat juice diffused through the water, as by the 

 presence of a piece of fresh meat near the fish, he is not able 

 to localize it accurately, but exhibits only the "seeking re- 

 action." I have not as yet been able to convince myself whether 

 the fish could accurately locate a strong and sharply localized 

 gustatory stimulus with no tactile element. In all the experi- 

 ments in which meat juice was directed against the body with a 

 pipette or syringe there was doubtless some tactile effect pro- 

 duced by the impact of the jet. We know from the experi- 

 ments that pure tactile stimuli can be accurately localized on 

 the skin, and there can be no doubt that under normal condi- 

 tions these assist in the localization of the food object. 



(2) Experiments on Gadoid Fishes. 



The preceding experiments were all carried on in the zoo- 

 logical laboratory of Denison University; the experiments on 

 marine fishes which follow were made during the summer of 

 1902 at the U. S. Fish Commission laboratory at Woods Hole. 

 The feeding reactions of three types of gadoids were studied; 

 viz., young pollock {^PollacJiius virens) about 10 cm. long, hake 

 {Urophycis tenuis) about 20 cm. long, and young adult tom cod 

 (J^'licrogadus tonicod). 



As is well known, the hake and tom cod have a mental 

 barblet which is known to be abundantly set with terminal buds 

 and which receives both communis and general cutaneous in- 

 nervation. In all three types the lips are freely supplied with 

 terminal buds and there is a recurrent branch of the facial nerve, 

 the ramus lateralis accessorius, which carries communis fibers 

 into the trunk to supply the terminal buds found on the fins, 

 especially the free rays of the ventral, or pelvic fins. These 



