121 MEMOIRS OF 



much smaller, and the external organs of their 

 senses are not of a nature to admit of powerful 

 impressions. Fishes, in fact, are, of all verte- 

 brated animals, those whicli have the least ap- 

 parent signs of sensibility. Having no elastic air 

 at tlieir disposal, they have remained mute, or 

 nearly so, and all those sentiments awakened 

 or sustained by the voice have remained un- 

 known to them. Their eyes almost immoveable, 

 their bony and rigid countenance, their members 

 deprived of inflexion, and every part moving at 

 the same time, do not leave them any power of 

 varying their physiognomy or expressing their 

 emotions. Their ear, enclosed on every side by 

 the bones of the skull, without external concli 

 or internal labyrinth, and composed only of a 

 few bags and membranous canals, scarcely 

 allows them to distinguish the most striking 

 sounds ; and, in fact, an exquisite sense of hear- 

 ing would be of very little use to those destined 

 to live in the empire of silence, and around 

 whom all are mute. Tlieir sight, in the depths 

 of their abode, w^ould be little exercised, if 

 the greater number of the species had not, by 

 the size of their eyes, been enabled to supply 

 the deficiency of light ; but even in these spe- 

 cies, the eye scarcely changes its direction ; still 



