Olfactory he act ions in Fishes 54 1 



tant body will form a soluti(ji on our moist surfaces that will be 

 stimulating for our organs of smell but not for our organs of taste. 

 Hence our olfactory organs :\s compared with our organs of taste 

 are what Sherrington ('06) his called distance receptors, a desig- 

 nation justly emphasized b\ Herrick ('08). Although this dis- 

 tinction between taste and ar.ell is one of degree rather than of 

 kind, it seems to me reasonally sound and it certainly holds in the 

 case of the catfish much as it does with us, for this fish responds 

 through its olfactory organs to solutions too dilute to affect its 

 gustatory organs, and the na ure of the response to olfactory stim- 

 ulation (seeking food, etc.) is such that the olfactory organ in this 

 fish can be called appropriaely a distance receptor. I therefore 

 believe that the catfish, thaigh a water-inhabiting animal, pos- 

 sesses an olfactory organ tha is as much an organ of smell as is the 

 olfactory organ of the air-imabiting vertebrates. 



