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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [Vol. XXXVI I. 



this respect they partook of the nature of the otocysts of the 

 lower animals. My own few observations are fully in accord 

 with this conclusion. When the nerves to the ears of the green 

 killifish (FunduUis heteroclitus) are cut and the animal attempts 

 rapid locomotion, it loses its bearings completely and swims in 

 any position in spirals or even in circles. Thus the ear is in 

 some way essential to the continued equilibrium of the fish. 

 Although this conclusion has no direct bearing on the question 

 of hearing in fishes, it makes it no longer necessary to assume 

 that the presence of the internal ear in a given fish implies the 

 ability of this fish to hear ; hence the argument used by the older 

 investigators is shown to be fallacious. 



The conclusion arrived at by Kreidl that the ears of fishes 

 like the goldfish, trout, etc. are not organs of hearing was 

 supported and extended by the observations of one of our 

 American physiologists, Dr. Lee of Columbia University, who 

 studied the reactions of several species of fishes to such sounds 

 as the human voice, the clapping of hands, and the striking of 



Lee (1898, p. 137) obtained no evidence whatever of the exist- 

 ence of a sense of hearing as the term is usually employed ; 

 though he found that the fishes were exceedingly sensitive to 

 gross shocks, such as the jarring of their tank or concussions 

 upon its walls. From the observations and experiments of 

 Bateson and of Kreidl and from his own work, Lee (1898, p. 

 138) believed that the conclusion is justified beyond doubt that 

 fishes do not possess the power of hearing, in the sense in 

 which the term is ordinarily used and that the sole function of 

 the ear in fishes is equilibration. According to this view then, 

 fishes resemble many of the lower aquatic animals, in that their 



Most important of these is the undoubted ability on the part of 

 fishes, like some totally deaf persons, may produce vocal sounds 



