C T 5° 
ufe of to come at fome kind of Certainty in this 
doubtful Affair y and fhall think my Time has been 
well employed, if it can afford you any Satisfaction. 
Tho J Fifhes are not provided with Organs for 
Hearing, fimilar to thofe ferving to that Purpofe in 
other Animals, it would be too prefumptuous to 
declare, without Experiment, that they are unable 
to hear, by Organs differently placed, whofe Situa- 
tion and Structure, for want of due Examination, 
we are unacquainted with. 
In order therefore to be able to judge from real 
FaCts, without being in the leaft prejudiced by what 
has been written for or againft their Capacity of 
Hearing, I have, for almoft three Years paft, been 
continually trying Experiments on feveral Kinds of 
Fifhes 5 viz. Perches, Ruffs, Banfticles, Millers 
Thumbs, Minnows, fyc. which I have kept in Glafs 
Jars for that Purpofe 5 and at the Hours of feeding 
them, as well as at other Times, have, by different 
Noifes, fuch as Whittling, Halloing, the Sounds of 
feveral mufical Inftruments, and every other means 
1 could contrive, endeavoured to discover their Senfe 
of Hearing, if they were indeed endowed with that 
Senfe j but could never perceive they were affeCted 
by any of thefe Noifes. 
But whether Fifhes do or do not hear, it is cer- 
tain their Senfes of Feeling and Seeing are exqui- 
sitely quick ; and I believe, by the extreme Senfi- 
bility of thefe two, one may explain moft of the 
Accounts that have been brought by Writers as 
Proofs of their Hearing j fuch as their coming, when 
called by their Names, as 1 Plutarch relates of Mar- 
cus CrajJus’s Lamprey, j their flocking in Throngs 
when 
