No. 435.] SENSE OE HEARING IN FISHES. 



describes some experiments made by Sir Francis Bacon to show 

 that sound can pass through water, experiments that led Walton 

 to crave the pardon of one whom he had laughed at for affirming 

 that carp would come to a certain place in a pond to be fed, at 

 the ringing of a bell or the beating of a drum. He thereupon 

 declares that " it shall he a rule for me to make as little noise as 

 I can when I am fishing, until Sir hYaneis Bacon be confuted, 

 which T shall give any man leave to do," and he finally resolves 

 " to advise anglers to be patient and forbear swearing, lest they 

 be heard, and catch no fish." 



The internal ears of the higher fishes were also known to the 

 older observers. So far as I am aware they were first described 

 by Casserius in 1610 and were studied in some detail in the fol- 

 lowing century by Geoffroy, Scarpa, Comparetti and the cele- 

 brated British physician, Hunter. The attitude taken by many 

 of these early workers in the question of the ability of fishes to 

 hear is well illustrated by a quotation from a paper on the organ 

 of hearing in fishes published by Hunter (1782). This paper 

 contains the following statement (1782, p. 383): "As it is evi- 

 dent that fish possess the organ of hearing, it becomes unneces- 

 sary to make or relate any experiment, made with live fish 

 which only tends to prove this fact ; but I will mention one 

 experiment, to shew that sound affects them much, and is one of 

 their guards, as it is in other animals. In the year 1762, when 

 I was in Portugal, I observed in a nobleman's garden, near 

 Lisbon, a small fish-pond, full of different kinds of fish. Its 

 bottom was level with the ground, and was made by forming a 

 bank all round. There was a shrubbery close to it. Whilst 

 I was laying on the bank, observing the fish swim about, I 

 desired a gentleman, who was with me, to take a loaded gun, and 

 go behind the shrubs and fire it. The reason for going behind 

 the shrubs was, that there might not be the least reflection of 

 light. The instant the report was made, the fish appeared to be 

 all of one mind, for they vanished instantaneously into the mud 

 at the bottom, raising as it were a cloud of mud. In about five 

 minutes after they began to appear, till the whole came forth 



This passage shows very clearly that in the opinion of Hunter 



