ZOOLOGY. 623 



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Syngnathi or the Lophobranchii still remind us strongly 

 of the cystiform reticular branchiae of the first family. 



Fam. 3. Acalephoid Fishes, Wide-mouthed. 



Body naked or covered with plates ; mouth in front 

 and mostly unusually wide. 



I here arrange in doubt the Frog-fishes and the Shads, 

 although the last are Abdominales. But they deviate 

 from the Carps and Pikes by their asymmetrical, naked 

 or mailed body, the large transverse mouth, the eyes 

 staring upwards, and the arrested branchial opercula. 



Order 2. Vascular, Conchozooid Fishes Stummel-flosser . 



3537. Asymmetrical Osseous Fishes, Apodales, and 

 Jugulares. 



Among the true Osseous Fishes the Eels must un- 

 doubtedly range the lowest on account of their vermiform 

 and asquamous body, and the want of ventral fins. To 

 them are allied the Jugulares, namely, the Blennii and 

 Gadidse, as well as the Plaice ; lastly, the asymmetrical 

 Thoracici without scales, being quite naked or covered 

 with scutes, as the Gobii and Triglae. 



Fam. 4. Mussel-Fishes, Eels. 



Body naked and serpentiform, without ventral fins. 



The Eels, from their naked, cylindrical or riband- 

 shaped body, the long dorsal and coccygeal fin, the small 

 branchial foramina occasionally confluent beneath the 

 neck, and by their dwelling in the mud, rank among 

 the imperfect Fishes. The one set have soft, the other 

 hard, fin-rays, and on that account they have not simply 

 been separated, but even far removed from each other. 

 This difference alone is not so great as to justify their 

 being arranged, when the structure of the body agrees in 

 other respects, into distinct orders. The influence of the 

 dorsal spines upon the life and natatory or waving 

 movement of Fishes is so slight, and its value generally, 

 in comparison with other parts, to be taken so little into 

 account, that a natural arrangement can never result 

 from these appendages, which do not deserve to be called 

 organs, and viewed as principal characters. 



