ON THE COMPARATIVE ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE VERTEBRATE ANIMALS, DELIVERED AT THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND, IN 1844 AND 1846. BY RICHARD OWEN, F.R.S. HUNTERIAN PROFESSOR, AND CONSERVATOR OF THE MUSEUM PART I. FISHES. ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS WOODCUTS. LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1846. 189. e. 7o. "But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: "Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee; and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. "Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this?" JOB, xii. 7, 8, 9. ADVERTISEMENT. THE increasing professional avocations of my friend Mr. W. White Cooper having prevented his rendering the kind aid which led to the publication of the "Lectures on the Invertebrata" so speedily after their delivery, a longer delay has occurred in the preparation for the press of those on the Vertebrate Animals than was originally contemplated. Such notes of these Lectures as Mr. Cooper had leisure to take he has kindly placed at my disposal, and they have served to recal characteristic expressions and ideas which suggested themselves in the course of the oral demonstrations. The desire to verify some of the propositions then enunciated, by repeating the observations on which they were founded, has led to many new dissections and examinations of numerous specimens, and reference is made to all those that form part of the Hunterian Museum. I have, also, reconsulted most of the original authorities from which the great bulk of the information imparted in the Lecture-room had been derived: and a list is given of the Works referred to in the text. The utility of the present Volume has been further regarded, by ingrafting into the text some remarkable discoveries with |