THE BLIND FISH FAMILY. 
35 
Tellkampf and W 3 nnan are all that have ever been written on the 
subject of an}^ importance, with the exception of the description 
of the e^^e by Dr. Dalton, whose paper, in the “New York Medical 
Times,” vol. 2, p. 354, I have not seen. Prof. Poey gives a com- 
parison of portions of the structure with that of the Cuban blind 
fishes. 
Dr. Tellkampf proposed the name of Heteropygii* for the family 
of which, at the time, a single species from the Mammoth Cave was 
the only known representative, and makes a comparison of the char- 
acters with those of Apliredoderus Sayanus, a fish found only in the 
fresh waters of the United States, and belonging to the old family 
of Percoids, but now considered as representing a family by itself, 
though closely allied to the North American breams (Pomotis), and 
having the anal opening under the throat as in the blind fish. 
Dr. Storer,j- not knowing of Dr. Tellkampf’s paper, proposed 
the name of Hypsmidm^ for the blind fish, and placed it between 
the minnow and the pickerel families, in the order of Malacoptery- 
gian, or soft ra^md, fishes. According to the system adopted by 
Dr. Griinther, it stands as closely allied to the minnows, Oypjrino- 
dontidce (many of which are viviparous and have the single ovary 
and general character of the blind fish), and the shiners, Cyprini- 
dee, of the order of Physostomi. Dr. Tellkampf, in discussing the 
relations of the fiimily, points out its maii}^ resemblances to the 
family of Clnpesoces, and its differences from the Silnroids, Cy- 
prinodontes and Clnpeoids, with which it has more or less afSniU, 
real or supposed. Prof. Cope in his paper on the Classification of 
Fishes]; places the Ambl 3 "opsis in the order of liaplomi with the 
shore minnows, pickerel and mud fish, and in an article on the W 3 ^- 
andotte Cave,§ he says that the Cyprinodontes (shore minnows) 
are its nearest allies. This arrangement by Prof. Cope places 
the Haplomi between the order containing the herrings and that 
containing the electric eel of South America, all included with the 
garpike, dog fish of the fresh waters (Amia), cat fishes, suckers 
and eels proper, etc., etc., in the division of Ph 3 ^sostomi as limited 
by him. 
^Froin t'.ie advanced positi:)n of the terminus of the intestine being so different from 
the position which it has in ordinary fishes, 
t Synopsis of the Fishes of North America, published in 184G. 
t American Naturalist, Vol. 5, p. 579, 1871. 
§ Indianapolis Daily Journal of September 5, 1871. Tleprinted in Ann. Mag. Nat. 
Hist., Nov., 1871. 
