Contributions from the Biological Laboratory of the U. S. Fish Commission 
Woods Hole, Massachusetts. 
HEARING AND ALLIED SENSES IN FISHES. 
By G. H. PARKER, 
Assistant Professor of Zoology , Harvard University. 
It is a well-known fact that many fishes are extremely sensitive to disturbances 
in the water such as are caused by splashing with an oar, stamping in a boat, or 
striking the side of an aquarium. When, for instance, the opaque wall of a fish 
tank containing young king-fish, sea-robins, or killi-fish is struck a vigorous blow 
with the fist, the fishes usually respond by giving a short, quick leap, and, if such 
blows are frequently repeated, surface fishes are often driven to the bottom and kept 
there. Notwithstanding the sensitiveness indicated by such reactions, most of these 
fishes appear to be unaffected by loud talking or other like noises originating in the 
air. Fishermen are familiar with these peculiarities and often take them into 
account in the practice of their art. 
Such facts as these are also usually accepted as evidence that fishes can hear 
(as an example, compare the statements made by W. C. Harris in Dean Sage’s 
“Salmon and Trout,” 1902, p. 311), but a simple experiment will show, I believe, 
that this assumption is not necessarily correct. If one end of a wooden rod is 
vigorously tapped while the other is beneath the level of the water a disturbance 
is produced that vdll call forth an obvious response from most fishes of moderate 
sensitiveness. Such a disturbance will likewise affect a human being, for if one 
holds the head beneath the water the vibrations from the rod can be easily heard, 
and if the hand be placed in the water near the rod they can be distinctly felt. 
Since, as Muller (1848, p. 1229) long ago pointed out, we can feel as well as hear 
these vibrations, it follows that such evidence as that already given can not be 
accepted as conclusive proof that fishes hear, for it is conceivable that their responses 
maybe entirely through their sense of touch, i. e., dependent on their skins. More- 
over, fishes possess a special system of tegmentary sense organs, the lateral -line 
organs, which are completely absent from us, and it may be that these are in some 
way the recipient organs for the disturbances already described. When, therefore, 
a fish responds to water vibrations of the kind mentioned, we are not justified in 
concluding that it hears, for it may respond through the skin or the lateral-line 
organs and not through the ears. 
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