XXXVI OLFACTORY ORGANS. 



supplied by branches from the glosso-pharyngeal nerves. Schulze (1862 and 

 1867) assigned to the eyathiform corpuscles of fishes, functions identical with 

 those of the gustatory bodies of the mammalian tongue. Jourdan (Comptes 

 Rendus, 1881, p. 743) confirmed the foregoing, and in gurnards found these 

 bodies upon the tongue, and suggested' they might be present in the buccal 

 mucous membrane of most fishes. Also that among the nervous terminations, 

 described by M. Joubert as organs of touch, we must distinguish those 

 which possess eyathiform bodies from those which are destitute of them, and 

 that these bodies are gustatory papillse. 



SMELL. 



That fishes possess the sense of smell has long been known, and in olden 

 times anglers employed certain essential oils to add zest to their baits. Some 

 years since when at Roorkee, in Upper India, I was told of some fine barbels, 

 Mahaseer, attempts to tempt which with bait had proved ineffectual, when a 

 native suggested adding a little camphor, subsequent to which no difficulty 

 was experienced in obtaining a bite. A pike in clear water has been seen 

 to approach and then turn away from a stale gudgeon, and this may have 

 been due to smell. 



Eyeless forms or those blind must depend on the sense of smell as well 

 as of that of touch. Some fish, due to accident, disease, hereditary malfor- 

 mation or want of development, are found totally devoid of vision, yet to 

 be in good condition and well-nourished, are daily taken by fishermen, and 

 the question forces itself on us how did they obtain food if belonging to forms 

 not furnished with barbels. Sir H. Davy considered it probable that trout 

 might have similar relations to the water it breathes that an animal with 

 delicate nasal organs has to the air, and fancied that there might • be nerves 

 in the gills, which afforded it this sense of the qualities of the surrounding 

 fluid. 



Fish are provided with organs of smell to enable them to receive impres- 

 sions from the surrounding medium, directing them to their food or warning 

 them against impurities in the water. These organs are situated much as 

 we perceive them in the higher animals, but, exceping in Cyclostomata, with 

 this essential difference, that they do not communicate with the mouth, nor 

 are they related to the function of breathing, for were their delicate lining- 

 membrane subject to incessant contact with currents of water, such would . 

 doubtless have a deteriorating effect, owing to the density of .the respired 

 element. The nostrils are essentially depressions or cavities, lined with a 

 large extent of a highly vascular pituitary membrane, packed into as small a 

 compass as possible, while we generally perceive one or two external openings 

 situated on the anterior. portion of the snout. The capsule which lines these 



