1356 THE STORY OF THE UNIVERSE 



fensive kind; and it is remarkable to find that man 

 has imitated and reproduced, in one of his common 

 mechanical contrivances, a structure existing in all 

 its natural perfection in the fish. 



Oddities in the way of curious fishes can receive no 

 better illustration than that afforded by the very 

 curious "telescope-fishes" of China. These beauti- 

 ful little fishes are kept alive in many of our large 

 aquaria. At first sight the telescope-fishes might be 

 mistaken for the familiar gold-fishes, but a cursory 

 inspection of their appearance at once shows the pe- 

 culiarities of structure which have earned for these 

 creatures their distinctive name. The eyes are seen 

 to be singularly prominent, and protrude from the 

 head to a marked extent, while they also present 

 certain alterations in intimate structure. The fins, 

 moreover, are double, this conformation being well 

 exemplified in the large and prominent tail-fin. 

 The exact nature of these fishes has been discussed 

 by the French Academy of Sciences, in the records 

 of which it is stated that the Chinese have cultivated 

 these fishes from an ordinary species of the carp 

 race, and that the peculiar conformation of the eyes 

 results from a diseased state, which, by being trans- 

 mitted from one generation to another, has become 

 at last a stable and definite character of the animals. 

 This very probable explanation of the origin of these 

 peculiar eyes is supported by the fact that certain 

 carps inhabiting the canal Saint Martin at Paris were 

 found to possess prominent eyes ; and a like appear- 

 ance has been observed in carps living in rivers into 

 which the water of drains had been allowed to flow. 



