THE SENSES OF FISHES. 37 



bright sunlight, "like an owl in a holly-bush," as the 

 saying is; but gently touch it with the tip of your rod, 

 and see the celerity with which it undulates away. The 

 trout does not resent the touch of the hand if it does 

 not see you ; but if, as is asserted by Professor Cope, in 

 Dr. Henshall's "Book of the Black Bass," it hears 

 through its scales, its perceptions must, in this regard, 

 be exquisitely delicate. 



That fish feel exquisite pain on the wounding of their 

 bodies, I cannot doubt. The barbarous method of bass 

 and other fishing, which compels the passing of a hook 

 under the skin of a minnow, shows by the shudders 

 and quivers of agony in the luckless bait how fear- 

 fully it suffers. Don't talk to me about "reflex 

 action " of the muscles in this case ! Again, the pesti- 

 lent salmon disease, which, like a loathsome leprosy, first 

 covers up the eyes and nostrils of the fish with a fungoid 

 growth (Saprolegnia ferax) and then spreads over the en- 

 tire body, often causes the hapless fish to dash itself 

 against the rocks, or leap out on shore, under the sense 

 of the intolerable irritation. Again, the presence of in- 

 ternal as well as external parasites, are particularly a 

 source of pain to trout. I have several times dissected 

 trout which had previously appeared unhealthy and dark- 

 colored, to find them infested with either the larval tape- 

 worm (ligula digamma of Creplin), or a liver fluke si mi- 

 liar to that of sheep. Indeed, the subject of fish diseases 

 is a very interesting one, and quite worth more investiga- 

 tion, apart from its bearing on the question of pain. 



