FATHER-LASHER. 67 



conclude tliat tlie power of fishes to sustain life for a time, 

 when taken out of water, must be referred to a principle 

 of internal organization, and is independent of the size of 

 the gill-aperture. 



M. Fleurens, a French physiologist, has explained what 

 appears to be the true cause of death in a fish kept out of 

 water. 



If its motions be attentively watched, it will be seen that, 

 although the mouth be opened and shut continually, and 

 the gill-cover raised alternately, the arches supporting the 

 branchiae, or gills, are not separated, nor are the branchial 

 filaments expanded — all remain in a state of collapse : the 

 intervention of a fluid is absolutely necessary to effect their 

 separation and extension ; without it these delicate fibres 

 adhere together in a mass, and cannot in that state receive 

 the vivifying influence of oxygen. The situation of the fish 

 is similar to that of an air-breathing animal enclosed in a 

 vacuum, and death by suffocation is the consequence. To 

 this may be added, that the duration of life in each species, 

 when out of water, is in an inverse ratio to the necessity for 

 oxygen. 



V 2 



