*4 
er FISHES IN GENERAL. 
has not been able to difcover any auditory organs in this 
clafs of the animal kingdom*. Mr. Klein , however, 
imagines he has found out organs of this fenfe , and he 
has allotted for that purpofe, thofe bones which are 
found in the head of fome fifties +. But thefe are fo dif- 
fimilar to the organs of hearing in other animals, that it 
is improbable, that Nature intended them for that pur- 
pofe ; and, befides, there are many fpecies, in which they 
are not to be difcovered. 
But although Nature, in their conformation, had made 
a provifion for the hearing of fifties, that fenfe mud have 
been extremely limited and imperfeft, from the nature of 
the element which they inhabit. Experiments have 
been made on the capacity of water to tranfmit founds ; 
and by thefe it has been found, that it is capable of con- 
veying them but a fhort way ; for it quickly deadens that 
vibration upon which they depend. A man whofe head 
is one foot immerfed in water, hears voices and words 
uttered in the air ; but, when funk to the depth of twelve 
feet, he fcarcely hears a mufket ftiot, though difebarged 
over his head. Hence it is probable, that Nature has 
made no organic apparatus to convey founds to fifties, 
fince ftie has forever configned them to an element, 
which muft, in a great meafurc, have defeated its pur- 
pofe. 
Rondeletius J, and feveral of the old naturalifts, who 
plead for the hearing of fimes, allege, in proof ot it, that 
certain kinds of them are fo ail'e&cd with noife, that 
they become unwholcfome after thunder ; and that, in 
ponds where they are tamed, in fome places of Germany , 
they are convened regularly by the call of a bell to their 
food* 
* Syflema Natarss. t Vidc Hiftoriam Pifcium. 
| Rondel.de pfeitws, lib. J. cap. 14. 
