PISCES. 
292 
but of one family ; and which, with the jaws perfect, have the filaments of the gills 
arranged in tufts upon the arches. 
In the rest, which include by much the greater number of the True Fishes, the cha- 
racter employed by Ray and Artedi, and taken from the nature of the first rays of the 
dorsal and anal fins, furnishes two principal divisions. These are Malacopterygii 
(soft fins), in which all the rays, with the occasional exception of the first dorsal or the 
pectorals, are soft or jointed ; and Acanthopterygii (spiny fins), in which the first 
portion of the dorsal, or first dorsal when there are two, always have spinous rays, and 
which have also some in the anal, and at least one in each ventral. 
The first of these sub-classes may be divided according to the position of the ventral 
fins. If these are on the belly, the fishes are Abdominal ; if attached to the shoulder, 
they are Suh-hrachian and if wanting, they are Apodal. Each of these orders com- 
prises certain families, of which the abdominal ones are very numerous. 
The Spinous Fishes do not admit of this kind of division ; but must be separated into 
families, the characters of which are, in many instances, well defined. The same gra- 
dation of families cannot be traced among Fishes as among Mammalia. Thus, the organs 
of sense, and those of generation in some, indicate connexion between Cartilaginous 
Fishes and Serpents, while the imperfect skeleton of others of these fishes indicates a 
relation to Mollusca and Worms, [though the far more important disposition of the 
nervous system, characteristic of the type of Vertebrated Animals, is still retained. 
The abstract of Cuvier’s arrangement of Fishes, by far the best — that is, the most 
natural, which has hitherto been made, or which there are materials for making — may 
be given briefly thus: — The series of True or Bony Fishes he divides into the two divi- 
sions already mentioned, as distinguished by the rays of the fins. The Spinous Fishes 
form a single order, and this order he divides into fifteen families, which he names, 
from some well-known species as the type, or for some marked peculiarity of character 
which belongs to the whole of the family and to no other fish. The Soft- finned Fishes 
he divides into three orders, according as the ventral fins are abdominal, thoracic, or 
wanting ; and the Cartilaginous Fishes he divides into two orders, — those with free 
gills, and those with the gills fixed.] 
THE FIRST ORDER OF BONY FISHES. 
ACANTHOPTERYGII. 
J 
This first order contains by far the greater number of the Ordinary Fishes. Their characters >i 
are spinous rays in the first dorsal, if there are more than one, and spinous rays in the first 4' 
part if there is one only ; but sometimes, instead of a first dorsal, they have free spines ’ i 
without any connecting membranes. The anal fin has also its first rays spinous ; and 4 
there is generally one such ray in each ventral. [¥/hen we speak of the first ray of a fin, | 
we mean the one nearest the head of the fish, which is easily understood in the other fins, and 4 
is the extreme one either above or below in the caudal.] 1 
The spinous fishes are arranged into fifteen families, and some of these families contain a | 
vast number of genera. The families are named, as already noticed, from some well-known |; 
species, or some strikingly peculiar character. [When a species is the type, the technical .Ji: 
name of the famil)" ends in id(B or oidcB, the Greek word for resemblance ; and when it is % 
founded on a peculiar character, the name is descriptive of that]. | 
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