Volume 1
The history of British fishes / [Robert Hamilton].
- Hamilton, Robert, M.D.
- Date:
- [1876]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The history of British fishes / [Robert Hamilton]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![specimens were dredged up on the coast of the Isle of Man, they were extremely active, and on first inspection had a strong resemblance to small Sand- eels. That so many striking deficiencies, as are im- plied in these statements, should exist in a true fish, could scarcely have been credited; and the most assiduous efforts of skill to sujiply their places, would overtask the ability of the most ingenious. In fact, it was only an extensive and intimate ac- qiKiintance Avith the minutife of Nature’s works as exhibited in the lower links of the animated scale, and more especially of embryonic forms, examined with the aid of powerful microscopes, that could have enabled the indefatigable author of the Paper under review, to have reached those satisfactory conclusions with which he has so re- cently enriched' the annals of science. Referring the curious reader, for minute and amjile details, to the iMemoir read to the Royal Society of Edin- burgh in May last (Vol. xv. p. 247), we now pro- ceed to state very shortly the mechanism and principles by which the phenomena of life in this singular animal must necessarily be conducted. AVe have already stated that there are no true vertebra?, and, in fact, no bones nor cartilages in the composition of this animal’s frame-work. The ; skeleton consists onlv of a serit's of sacs, assuminrr particular forms according to their several ])ositions, and appearing fiattenc'd in tlic spinal column, and cylindrical in the place of the fin bones. The spinal column consists externally of a fibrous sheath, and](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29002151_0001_0054.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
