266 FISHES. 



enveloped is no longer covered with water, subsisting on the smallest 

 portion of that fluid which it may contain. The immobilitv of some fishes 

 as the Rays, and those of the genus Lophius, forms a striking contrast 

 with the very great rapidity of a large number, especially some of the 

 mackerels. Several fishes as the Eels and Gobies can actually live for 

 some time on dry land, and can creep on the banks of rivers; the anabas 

 climbs up trees, and establishes himself on the leaves where little col- 

 lections of water are formed. The pirabebes and flying fishes have 

 such extensive pectoral fins as to enable them to rise and support them- 

 selves in the air, and even to move a good distance in it. The most 

 remarkable industry in all the class perhaps, is that of certain fishes of 

 India, Toxotes jaculator, and Chcetodon rostratus, Avhich, by spurting 

 drops of water to a certain height, bring down insects for their food. 

 But all these A'arieties of habits are principally connected Avith the 

 conformations of the animals, and it would be in vain to attempt to 

 give an account, unless from a detailed study of the structure in eveiy 

 part of the body, of the distinctions which mark it from that of the 

 other Vertebree, and the modifications of it in the various families, ge- 

 nera and species. 



Itis for this study that the whole of this booK is destined to be a pre- 

 paration. We begin it by an examination of the body of the fish in its 

 exterior ; we then describe the bony frame work Avhich sup^jorts and 

 gives it form and proportions ; the muscles which act on it and supply 

 it with the due impulse for its various motions : then the organs of the 

 senses Avhich receive the impressions of external objects ; the nerves 

 which convey these impressions ; the brain where they ultimately 

 meet, and from which the commands of the Avill are distributed : next 

 the organs of digestion, beginning with the teeth, and ending with the 

 lacteals which carry the chyle into the blood : the vessels of the circula- 

 tion, both those Avhich carry back the blood from the various parts of 

 the body to the gills, or from the gills to the various parts of the 

 body ; then these gills themselves Avith all their appendages, or the 

 means whereby the blood receives, from without, the portion of 

 oxygen which is essential to it : finally, we shall describe the organs 

 of reproduction in the two sexes, and the roe or the various envelopes 

 and provisions prepared for the foetus. 



It is only after we have been acquainted by the succeeding articles, 

 with the general notions of all the parts of animal organization, such 

 as it is fovmd modified in the fishes, that we shall be able to take up, 

 with advantage, the particlar history of families, genera, and s]jecies. 



In our descriptions we shall be as brief as the necessity of preserving 

 clearness will allow; we shall avoid, most carefully, that jumble of 

 technical terms, which seem invented on purpose to make as repugnant 

 as possible a science already overgrown with intrinsic difficulties, and 

 which are very little necessary to the description of beings and forms, 

 generally speaking, so simple as the fishes. 



