THE FISHES. 191 



The late Mr. Manley says : " It is a question which must 

 often suggest itself to the angler, and many must have 

 wished that they could unhesitatingly answer it in the 

 negative. I think they may do so." One reason he gives 

 is the fact that numerous instances of the same fish 

 being caught immediately after being previously hooked ; 

 but that only proves that the power of memory is deficient, 

 which, considering the size of a fish's brain, can be easily 

 understood. 



One has only to study the nerve distribution in the 

 head of a fish to see at once that relatively fish must feel 

 pain when hooked in what degree is another question. 

 The nerves which supply the whole of the head in the 

 fish are the same as those which are distributed in the 

 head of most of the vertebrates. Professor Rymer Jones 

 says that, " with the exception of the ninth pair (the hypo- 

 glossal nerve), which are not met with in fishes, both in 

 distribution and in number the nerves of fishes precisely 

 accord with those of man. In fishes the vagus and fifth 

 pair are usually the largest, and the fifth pair are the sensi- 

 tive nerves supplying the orbit. The parts about the nose, 

 the upper and lower jaws, indeed as far as regards the 

 face the distribution is exactly similar to that in man ; but 

 in fishes it also gives off, branches to the gill-covers to 

 the top of the skull, joining a large branch of the eighth 

 pair, and issuing from the cranium through a hole in the 

 parietal bone, passes along the whole length of the back 

 on each side of the dorsal fin, round twigs from all the 

 intercostal nerves, and supplying the muscles of the fins 

 and fin-rays." From this description of the distribution 

 of this sensitive nerve, it is impossible to say that fish 

 do not feel pain, but it is probably very evanescent. 



The fact is, it is difficult to follow any sport comprising 

 the capture of animals without producing pain more or 

 less, and it is well to bear in mind Sir Humphry Davy's 

 remarks, that there is danger in analysing too closely the 

 moral character of any of our field-sports. " If," he says, 

 "all men were Pythagoreans and professed the Brahmin's 

 creed, it would be undoubtedly cruel to destroy any form 



