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BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
The late Sir Richard Owen, in his celebrated work on “The Anatomy and 
Physiology of Vertebrates, ” said : 
It may well be conceived, then, that more bones enter into the formation of the sknll in 
fishes than in any other animals; and the composition of this skull has been rightly deemed the most 
difficult problem in comparative anatomy. “It is truly remarkable,” writes the gifted Oken, to whom 
we owe the first clue to its solution, “what it costs to solve any one problem in philosophical 
anatomy. Without knowing the what, the how, and the why, one may stand, not for hours or days, 
but weeks, before a fish’s skull, and our contemplation will be little more than a vacant stare at its 
complex stalactitic form.” 
Row, from tliis it will be easily appreciated that to write the “ what,” the “ how,” 
and the “ why” of the entire skeleton of Micropterus would simply make a volume of 
several hundred pages, an achievement by no means contemplated when this brief 
Fig. 3. — Right lateral view of skull of M. dolomieu, with other bones ; natural size, by the author. 
Pmx , premaxillary; PI. , palatine; na., nasal ; Eth., ethmoid ; Prf, prefrontal ; As., alisphenoid ; 
Fr., frontal; Ptf., postfrontal; Sq., squamosal; Pa., parietal; Pt. o ., pterotic; S. O., supra- 
occipital; s. L, supralinear; Ep. o , epiotic; Jc, interneural spines; La., lacrymal; Pr.s., para- 
sphenoid; >S '.or., suborbital; Pr.o., prootic; Bs. basisphenoid ; G. Hy., glossohyal; D., dentary; 
A rt., articular; Mx., maxillary; a, admaxillary ; Enpt., entopterygoid ; Ecpt., ectojiterygoid ; 
M. ft., metapterygoid; Pst. T ., })osttemporal ; Pr. >$., proscapula; Pf., pectoral fin; Hyo. C., 
liypocoracoid; Op., operculum ; aS'. Op., suboperculum; Any., angular ; Sym., s^mplectic ; n.s., 
neural spine; Psto. T., posterotemporal; T., teleotemporal ; T lower teleotemporal ; Bs.P., 
brancliiostegal rays; P. Op., preoperculum ; I. Op., int.eroperculum ; PI. M., liyomandibular ; 
Qu., quadrate ; r.,rib; Ast., actinosts ; Hyp. C., hypercoracoid. 
memoir was undertaken. Its aim, in fact, simply consists in bringing together what 
I have already printed about the skeleton of this well-known and widely distributed 
American fish, and arranging that subject-matter in condensed monographic form, 
adding to it anything that may not have been touched upon in previous publications. 
The paper will fulfill its mission if it excites an interest anywhere in the study of the 
skeleton in fishes, and brings before the reader facts which will facilitate such studies, 
and in a way prove to be of assistance in comprehending future memoirs upon the 
osteology of fishes. 
The best method of studying the bones composing the ■skull and appendages in any 
adult specimen of au osseous fish, apart from* comparing those bones with the corre- 
sponding or analogous ones in the skull of any other animal, is to secure several perfect 
heads of the fish to be thus considered, as near as possible of the same size, and pre- 
