FISHES. 
497 
Fig. 344. Teeth of the Carp. 
belongs to the fish’s eye. The crystalline is voluminous, spherical, 
and diaphanous. When the fish is cooked, the crystalline con- 
stitutes that opaque and hard white substance which ol'ten comes 
under the teeth in eating fish of a certain size. Cuvier suspected, 
what anglers now know to bo true, that those 
active chasseurs of the deep saw far and very 
clearly. 
If fishes have great eyes, they have, on the 
other hand, very small ears. This organ, it is 
found, has no exterior opening. It forms a cavity FiB ' 343 ' TeeUl of the Bream ' 
m the interior of the cranium, which is far from presenting the com- 
plicated structure of the ear in Mammifers 
and birds. In spite, however, of the imperfect 
structure, fishes are sensible to tho least 
noise. In consequence, silence is a rigorous 
law with the fisherman. 
The dimensions of the mouth and teeth 
are very variable in fishes ; these organs are 
in proportion to their voracity, which in many of these beings is 
very great. The form and development of 
the buccal pieces are also very various. Some 
species are toothless, but in most fishes the 
teeth are very numerous. They are some- 
times attached not alone to the two jaws, 
but also to the palate, to the tongue, and 
upon the interior of the branchial arch, and even in the back mouth, 
that is to say, upon the ospharyngeal, 
Which surrounds the mouth of the 
oesophagus. 
The form of their teeth is very vari- 
able both in arrangement and position : 
some are in the form of an elongated Fig 
°one, either straight or curved. When 
small and numerous, they are comparable to the points of the cards 
used in carding wool or cotton. Sometimes they are so slender and 
dense as to resemble .the piles of velvet, and often, from their very 
minute size, their presence is more easily ascertained by the finger 
than the eye. In some members of the Salmonidae, for instance, we 
Fig. 345. Teeth of the Trout. 
• 346. Teeth of the Gold-fish Dorada. 
