Art. VI] Herrick, Taste in Fishes. 55 



buds in all cases which have been adequately studied. These 

 organs may therefore all be defined morphologically as belong- 

 ing to the communis system of sense organs, along with the 

 taste buds of the mouth cavity and as distinct from the lateral 

 line organs and all other types of sense organs. In order to 

 support this position there remains merely the proof that the 

 terminal buds and taste buds have a similar function. This evi- 

 dence is presented in the latter part of this paper. 



The terminal buds of fishes have been often described and 

 figured, and I have little to add to the classical descriptions save 

 in the matter of distribution and innervation. Those in the 

 mouth are supplied by branches of the X, IX and VII pairs of 

 cranial nerves, the first two nerves supplying those in the gill 

 regions and the pre-trematic branch of the glossopharyngeus 

 also running forward to supply those on the hyoid arch (tongue). 

 The communis root of the facialis (=portio intermedia of human 

 anatomy) and its geniculate ganglion supply the taste buds on 

 the palate by the r. palatinus facialis (=great superficial petro- 

 sal nerve of man), and other buds on the lining of the cheek, 

 on the jaws and on the lips by other branches, some of which 

 are secondarily associated with branches of the trigeminus and 

 most of which have no homologues in mammalian anatomy, 

 though some one or more of them probably represent the chorda 

 tympani. 



In Ameitinis I have shown ('01) that terminal buds occur 

 in the skin of practically the whole body surface, must abund- 

 antly on the barblets and diminishing in frequency toward the 

 tail. These buds (see Fig. 2) rest on a low papilla of the der- 

 mis, quite different from that figured by Merkel ('80, Plate V, 

 Fig. 1) for the terminal buds of Sibinis. His figure shows a 

 much smaller organ, resting upon a greatly elongated papilla in 

 an epidermis which is apparently thicker than in Ameiurus. 

 Merkel states ('80, p. 72) that terminal buds always occur on 

 such a dermal papilla. While this is certainly the general rule, 

 we find occasionally instances where the papilla is absent, as on 

 the filiform fins of the hake, where I find the buds embedded 



