238 PISCES. 



low pancreatic gland, more analogous to that of the higher Verte- 

 brata. 



The Salivary glands appear to be very generally absent in Fishes, 

 or their place to be occupied by an increased development of the 

 mucous glands of the mouth. A small cylindrical and lobulated 

 gland has been found in Lophius piscatorius, lying immediately 

 beneath the integument posteriorly to the wide branchial opening ; 

 it would appear to be analogous to a salivary gland, from the fact 

 of the branchial cavity of this Fish serving as a receptacle for its 

 prey. 



The Liver is in general of large size, and colored in different 

 shades of red, brown, or yellow. It is frequently very simple in 

 form, and alobular, or often tongue-shaped, e. g. in Petromyzon, 

 Syngnathus, Esox, Salmo, and, in a word, in the most different 

 families. It is bilobed in Silurus, Blennius, Perca, Cobitis, and the 

 Sharks, but trilobed in Gadus, Clupea, many species of Cyprinus, 

 and in the Rays. In other species of Cyprinus, e. g. C. barbus, 

 carassias, it is divided into a number of lobes united by narrow 

 bands, and placed between the convolutions of the intestine. The 

 biliary ducts do not usually unite into a single tube, but proceed 

 together into the gall-bladder, or into the vesical duct. The gall- 

 bladder is seldom wanting, as in Petromyzon, Cyclopterus Lumpus, 

 and in Scomber Leuciscus. Its form is either elongated and pyri- 

 form, cylindrical, or spherical. Occasionally it is completely im- 

 bedded in the liver, and in many cases, as in Uranoscopus scaber 

 and Orthagoriscus Mola, is of very large and disproportionate size 

 compared to that of other Vertebrata. The gall-dust (d. choledo* 

 chus), generally single, opens mostly in the vicinity of the pylorus, 

 but sometimes at a part of the intestine remote from the latter, as in 

 the Pike. 



The Spleen appears to be either absent in several Fishes, or so 

 small as to be readily overlooked, e. g. in the Cyclostomi and Lepa- 

 dogaster. It is mostly of a reddish-brown color, small size, and 

 very varied form ; thus it is elongated in Blennius, triangular in the 

 Pike, large, irregular, and slightly lobular, in Cyprinus and the Stur* 

 geon, very large in many Sharks, and divided into lobes of unequal 

 size, but united together. The liver and spleen do not exhibit the 

 same symmetrical and regular position in respect to each other that 

 they do in the higher Vertebrata ; the greater portion of the liver 

 frequently lies to the right, but very often to the left side, while the 



