PISCES. 79 



having no means of seizing this prey, but by swal- 

 lowing it, a delicate sense of taste would have been 

 useless to Fishes, had nature bestowed it on them. 

 But their tongue, almost immoveable, often bony, 

 or armed with dentated plates, and only receiving a 

 few slender nerves, demonstrates that this organ is as 

 little sensible as it is little necessary. Smell, even, 

 cannot be as continually exercised by Fishes as by 

 animals which breathe air in a direct manner, and 

 whose nostrils are unceasingly traversed by odorifer- 

 ous vapours. Lastly, we come to the touch, which, 

 on account of the surface of their bodies being en- 

 circled by scales, by the inflexibility of the rays of 

 their limbs, and by the dryness of the membranes 

 enveloping them, has been obliged, as it were, to 

 seek refuge at the end of their lips ; and even these, 

 in some species, are reduced to a dry and insensible 

 hardness." 



Fishes are almost universally carnivorous : rapine 

 and murder are unceasing ; the stronger preying upon 

 the weaker, who in their turn destroy their inferiors 

 with unrelenting rapacity. With one or two excep- 

 tions, in which the eggs are hatched previously to 

 expulsion, these tribes are oviparous, and do not 

 generally take any care either of their eggs or young. 

 Many species appear to attain a great longevity: a 

 Pike taken in Prussia, in 1754, bore a ring which 

 testified its having been put into the pond in 1487 ; 

 so that it had lived at least 267 years ; how much 

 longer is of course unknown. The power of emit- 

 ting a bright phosphoric radiance in the dark is 



