OF FISHES IN GENERAt, T3 



produce fome kind of fenfation. This, moft probably, is 

 the ufe of that organ in thefe animals j as, otherwife, 

 they would be provided with the inftruments of a fenfe, 

 which they could not enjoy from want of an opportunity 

 of ufing them *. 



The fenfe of tafte in fifties muft be very imperfeft, if 

 its delicacy arife from the pliancy and foftnefs of the or- 

 gan. The whole mouth of fifties is covered with a hard 

 bony fubftance, which mufl: deprive them of almolt all 

 power of diftinguifliing different fubftances by the pa- 

 late: Their voracity, accordingly, is fo indifcriminate, that 

 there is hardly any kind of food which they will not 

 fwallow : They devour the fiftierman's plummet inftead of 

 the bait. 



All fifties, except the cetaceous, are deprived, not only 

 of external ears, but alfo of the auditory nerves and canal. 

 Of the fenfe of hearing, therefore, it is probable, that they 

 are altogether defhitutef . As they are incapable of uttering 

 foands, they could feldom have an opportunity of hear- 

 ing, even though Nature had endowed them with that 

 power. They have no voice to communicate with each 

 other, and, confequently, have no need of that organ by 

 which it is difcerned. The whales, and perhaps the cartila- 

 ginous fifties, are found polTefled of fmall apertures for the 

 admiffion of founds ; but, even in thefe, this fenfe muft, 

 from the fmallnefs of the organ, be very iinperfeft. 



Naturalifts, determined by tliefe realous. feem, in ge- 

 neral, agreed, that all the fpinous fifties are deftitute of 

 the faculty of hearing. Linna-:m who has probably ex-* 

 an:sined a greater number of fabjefls, and vv'ith more 

 accuracy than any other phiiofopher, confeiFes, that he 



has 



* Goldfmith's Nat. Hift. vol. 6. p. iCo. 



f P.anii apud Will. c. iv. lib. I. de pifc. audltu. 



