Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 096.djvu/12

2 instruments employed for their progressive motion, give them a character peculiarly distinct from the rest of the creation. The frame-work of bones or cartilages, called the Skeleton, is simple; the limbs are not formed for complicated motions, and the proportion of muscular flesh is remarkably large. The muscles of fishes have no tendinous chords, their insertions being always fleshy. There are, however, semi-transparent, pearly tendons placed between the plates of muscles, which give origin to a series of short muscular fibres passing nearly at right angles between the surfaces of the adjoining plates. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek appears to have overlooked these tendons, and the numerous vessels, which he describes in the interstices of the muscular flakes, I have not been able to discern.

The motion of a round shaped fish, independent of its fins, is simple; and as it is chiefly effected by the lateral flexure of the spine and tail, upon which the great mass of its muscular flesh is employed, whilst the fins are moved by small muscles, and those, from their position, comparatively but of little power, I shall only describe in detail the arrangement and application of those masses, which constitute the principal moving organs.

For this purpose a well known fish, the cod, has been selected as a standard of comparison for the muscles of other fishes, there being a conspicuous resemblance among them all.

The pairs of fins have been considered as analogous to feet, but they are only employed for the purposes of turning, stopping, altering the position of the fish towards the horizon,