MYXINE. 463 



of Berlin, will be read with interest ; and the substance of it 

 will be found in the twelfth part of his valuable work on 

 Fishes, in which the internal structure is rendered obvious by 

 various coloured illustrations. 



In the family of fishes now under consideration, the last 

 of vertebrate animals, the spinal column is in a rudimentary 

 condition. In the Lampreys it is but indistinctly divided 

 into rounded portions. In the Myxine, in place of a series 

 of bones composing the vertebral column, there is merely a 

 soft and flexible cartilaginous tube ;* while in the diminutive 

 fish next to be described, which is the last of the British 

 species, this support is reduced to a small and slender semi- 

 transparent column, extending throughout and connecting 

 the whole length of the body like the flexible horny pen in 

 some species of Cephalopods, and to which class other rela- 

 tions of structure both in the Myxine and in this small fish 

 will be pointed out. 



As a British fish, the Myxine occurs most frequently on 

 the eastern coast. It enters, says Pennant, " the mouths of 

 other fish when on the hooks attached to the lines which 

 remain a tide under water, and totally devours the whole 

 except the skin and bones. The Scarborough fishermen 

 often take it in the robbed fish on drawing up their lines." 

 On this part of our coast it is called Hag, and also Borer, 

 because, as others say, it first pierces a small aperture in the 

 skin, and afterwards buries its head in the abdomen or 

 body. It is most usually found in the body'of the Cod, or 

 some other equally rapacious fish. 



For the only specimens of the Myxine I ever possessed, I 

 am indebted to the unremitting kindness of Dr. George 

 Johnston of Berwick, who has assisted me most materially 



* If a section be made, a probe passes readily in either direction. 



