Account of the organ of hearing in fish / By John Hunter.

  • John Hunter
Date:
1782]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Account of the organ of hearing in fish / By John Hunter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/14 page 381
    \ the Organ of Hearing In Fijh, j8i like thofe of the ray kind; in others alfo3 as in cod, falmon, &c. whofe Ikeleton is bone, yet this part is cartilaginous. In fome fifh this organ is in part within the cavity of the ikull, or that cavity which alfo contains the brain, as in the falmon, cod, &c. the cavity of the Ikull projecting laterally, and forming a cavity there. The organ of hearing in fill appears to grow in fize with the animal, for its fize is nearly in the fame proportion with the fize of the animal, which is not the cafe with the quadruped, &c. the organs being in them nearly as large in the growing foetus as in the adult. It is much more firnple in fifh than in all thofe orders of animals who may be reckoned fuperior, inch as quadrupeds, birds, and amphibious animals, but there is a regular grada- tion from the fir ft to fifh. a It varies in different orders of fifh ; but in all it confifts of three curved tubes, all of which unite with one another; this union forms in fome only a canal, as in the cod, fal- mon, ling, &c. ; and in others, a pretty large cavity as in th ray kind. In the jack there is an oblong bag, or blind proa which is an addition to thofe canals, and which communicates with them at their union. In the cod, &c. this union of the three tubes frauds upon an oval cavity, and in the jacl there are two of thofe cavities; thefe additional cavities in a. gf C O’ Jl O J .0 pui Jl *1 thefe fifh appear to anfwer the farm i JL . in the ray or cartilaginous fifh, which is the union of the three canals. The whole is compofed of a kind of cartilayh very hard or firm in foifie parts, and which in fome- fifh is cruffed over with a thin bony lamella, fo as not to allow them to eollapie ; for as the Ikull does not form any part of of . Ji. ,e j ack ties in cavity of the Tar ice, o j thole.
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