Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/314

300 quantity from the liver, to which medicinal properties are attributed.

We now come to a Family which contains the most highly organized members, not only of their Order, but of the whole Class of Fishes. They are generally of large size, sometimes gigantic; are carnivorous and voracious; and some of them are universally dreaded for their ferocity, their appetite for human flesh, their strength, and the formidable array of teeth with which their mouth is furnished. The White Shark (Carcharias vulgaris), that terror of the tropical seas, has been repeatedly known to cut a man’s body in twain at a single snap; and accounts are current of human bodies having been found entire in the bodies of these terrible monsters. Nor will this seem incredible when we consider that this species is sometimes found twenty feet in length.

This and the following Family agree in having the gills attached at their outer margin, with a separate orifice to each, through which the water escapes. These orifices are commonly five in number. In the Sharks the body is lengthened, and of the usual fish-form, that is, tapering from behind the head to the tail, with but little swelling in the middle; the muzzle is more or less pointed, and projects, so that the mouth opens beneath; the nostrils also are situated beneath the snout. All the fins are distinct and free;