RANK OF FISH IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 217 



CHAPTEK IX. 



ON PISCATOKIAL PHYSIOLOGY. 



IN ORDER to clear up, for angling purposes, how 

 far fish see, hear, smell, taste, and generally feel, 

 I solicited one of my best friends, Erasmus Wilson, 

 F.R.S., a well-known and accomplished anatomist 

 and physiologist, to write me briefly his opinions 

 on the subject. He obligingly complied, and the 

 following is the useful result. 



From the humble position of the fish in the 

 animal kingdom, namely, at the very foot of the 

 scale of the vertebrate series, in other words, the 

 lowliest of that large group of animals distin- 

 guished by the possession of a spine, it may na- 

 turally be inferred that those higher attributes of 

 animals which depend on the presence of nerves, 

 and of a nervous system, present a corresponding 

 degree of inferiority. Such an inference would 

 be strictly true ; for, whatever element of their 

 construction we examine, whether their bones, 

 muscles, vessels, nerves, or organs of nutrition, 

 sense, or reproduction, all suggest alike the idea 

 of inferiority as contrasted with the higher animals 

 and man, but of exquisite beauty as compared 



