62 ANGLING. 



Their brain also, though of similar composition, is 

 proportionally much smaller, whether as compared 

 with the total size of the body, with the mass of 

 nerves which proceed from it, or with the cavity of 

 the cranium in which it is contained. In the 

 turbot (Gadus lota) for example, the weight of the 

 brain to that of the spinal marrow is estimated by 

 Carus to be as 8 to 12, and to that of the whole 

 body as 1 to 720 ; and it has been ascertained 

 that the brain of a pike weighed in proportion to the 

 whole body as 1 to 1305. Now, in many small 

 birds, the brain, viewed in relation to the rest of 

 the body, is equal to a twentieth part. In the 

 generality of fishes the spinal cord extends along 

 the whole of the caudal vertebrae, and it is thus 

 that it preponderates over the brain ; but the fish- 

 ing frog, or sea devil (Lophius piscatorius), the 

 moon fish (Lampris guttatus), and a few others form 

 exceptions to this rule, the spinal marrow dis- 

 appearing before it reaches the eighth vertebra. 

 The brain of fishes by no means fills up the cavity 

 of the cranium ; and the interval between the pia 

 mater, which envelopes the brain itself, and the 

 dura mater, which lines the interior of the skull, is 

 occupied only by a loose cellulosity, frequently 

 impregnated by an oil, or sometimes, as in the 

 sturgeon and thunny, by a more compact fatty 

 matter. It has also been remarked, that this void 

 between the cranium and the brain is much less in 

 young subjects than in adults ; from which it may 

 be inferred that the brain does not increase in an 

 equal proportion with the rest of the body. Cuvier, 



