OF FISHES 



41 



DIGESTIVE APPARATUS. 



No contrivance could be more simple, and at 

 the same time more complete, than their digestive 

 apparatus ; the stomach varies in anatomical struc- 

 ture, according to the nature of the substances on 

 which the species are to subsist. Possessing but 



STOMACH OF THE SALMON. 



slight muscularity, the gastric juice, which is se- 

 creted in rapid abundance, soon dissolves the 

 bones and tissues of smaller animals, and converts 

 them into that condition, which fits them for being 

 assimilated to a living system.* 



* Instances are without number, which might be cited, il- 

 lustrative of the active power of the gastric fluid of fishes. 

 Very recentty, a master of a vessel informed the writer, that 

 he caught a shark, which the day 'before had bitten one of 

 his men in two, who was bathing, along-side, — but there was 

 nothing remaining in the stomach, but the tibia, some of the 

 bones of one foot, and the metallic eyes of some buttons. 



