FISHES AND PISHING. 83 



the other organization of the sense of hea/ring, including 

 nerves. It being known to several, that I had seen 

 the above book, I cannot stultify myself by allowing 

 such ignorance of comparative anatomy as to fish, to 

 go forth to the world, without notice. And from 

 what I know of the subject as to birds, the same ani- 

 madversion would be properly applied. 



Monro says, it was disputed during two thousand 

 years, and until the time of Goffroi, or Geoffirey, in 

 1 753, whether fish had any sense of hearing. In this 

 assertion Monro was labouring under very great error ; 

 for when Oppian wrote, about 1559 years before 

 Geoffrey, it is evident, by reference to his Halieuticks, 

 the sense of hearing in fish was not then a matter of 

 question or doubt, but a fact established so completely, as 

 to require no confirmatory observation. 



Some fish have a passage outwardly analogous to the 

 auditory passage of terrestrial animals. Of these are 

 the whale, the porpus, and skate, the anatomy of which 

 ai-e delineated by Monro, who says that the whale 

 genus can close the small outward orifice when they 

 descend under water. Heusinger states that he has 

 discovered openings at the summit of the skull, closed 

 by membranes. G. Cuvier has indicated their situa- 

 tion at the base of the skull, and that they are closed 

 by membraneous leaves. 



The internal auditory apparatus in fish, resembles 



G 2 



