LITERARY NOTICES. 
Hearing and Allied Senses in Fishes.! 
The moot question whether fishes possess the sense of hearing has 
been attacked experimentally by PARKER with the result that he gives 
a definite affirmative answer for some types of teleosts. This report 
will impress the reader as a particularly clean piece of experimental re- 
search and the conclusions seem to be free from any reasonable ques- 
tion. ‘The experiments were ingeniously planned, carefully controlled 
and skilfully performed. The general methods of the research, as well 
as the conclusions, can be gathered from the author’s summary of re- 
sults, which we quote: 
1. Normal Fundulus heteroclitus reacts to the sound waves from a 
tuning-fork of 128 vibrations per second by movements of the pectoral 
fins and by an increase in the respiratory rate. It probably also re- 
sponds to sound waves by caudal fin movements and by general loco- 
motor movements. 
2. Individuals in which the eighth (auditory) nerves have been 
cut do not respond to sound waves from the tuning-fork. 
3. The absence of responses to sound waves in individuals with 
severed eighth nerves is not due to the shock of the operation or to 
other secondary causes, but to the loss of the ear as a sense organ. 
4. Fundulus heteroclitus therefore possesses the sense of hearing. 
5. ‘The ears in this species are also organs of prime importance 
in equilibration. 
6. Normal Fundulus heterochtus swims downward from the top of 
the water and remains near the bottom when the aquarium in which it 
is contained is given a slight noiseless motion. 
7. Individuals in which the nerves to the lateral-line organs have 
been cut will swim upward or remain at the top while the aquarium is 
being gently and noisclessly moved. 
8. The lateral-line organs in this species are probably stimulated 
1 Parker, G. H. Hearing and Allied Senses in Fishes, U. S. Fish Com- 
mission Bulletin for 1902, Washington, 1903, pp. 45-64- 
