6o ANGLERS' EVENINGS. 



scarcely perceptible. The cerebrum is also generally 

 inferior in size to the optic ganglia. 



It is true also that the fish is a cold-blooded animal. 

 The heart consists of only two chambers, one auricle and 

 one ventricle, and the circulation is consequently feeble, 

 and it is not highly oxygenated. A leading physiologist 

 has lately expressed an opinion that the irrigation, or 

 blood supply of the brain, is possibly of more importance in 

 determining intelligence than the size of the organ itself. 

 As I have before remarked, we are accustomed to 

 associate ideas of sluggishness with coldness. This 

 circumstance, therefore, seems also to be strongly against 

 the assumed intelligence of the fish. It is not my inten- 

 tion to lead you into a discussion of these abstruse 

 physiological problems. I may, however, in conclusion, 

 mention some possibly compensating advantages. 



Before the fish is condemned as devoid of intelligence 

 it should be remembered how much he accomplishes with 

 very inferior appliances. Let any man consider how he 

 would get along through life if reduced to the position of 

 a person in a sack-race. If one of my hearers will 

 imagine himself to be thus bound, I am sure he will feel 

 that under such conditions more than ever would now 

 depend upon his intelligence : in other words, his head 

 would become a more important member of his system 

 than before. If an ordinary man were to be hooked by 

 an angler, like a fish, he w^ould be able to liberate himself 

 by means of hands or legs, and he would instinctively 

 use these appurtenances. But the fish, having no such 

 convenient appliances, has to rely entirely upon his wits. 



