Fig. 46.
Brain and anterior portion of the spinal chord of Trigla (Gurnard), showing the globular swellings at the base of the anterior spinal nerves.
A Sympathic nervous system appears to be absent in Branchiostoma, and has not yet been clearly made out in Cyclostomes. It is well developed in the Palæichthyes, but without cephalic portion. This latter is present in all Osseous fishes, in which communication of the Sympathic has been found to exist with all cerebral nerves, except the olfactory, optic, and acustic. The sympathic trunks run along each side of the aorta and the back of the abdomen into the hæmal canal; communicate in their course with the ventral branches of each of the spinal nerves; and, finally, often blend together into a common trunk beneath the tail. At the points of communication with the cerebral and spinal nerves frequently ganglia are developed, from which nerves emerge which are distributed to the various viscera.
CHAPTER VII.
THE ORGANS OF SENSE.
Characteristic of the Organ of Smell in Fishes is that it has no relation whatever to the respiratory function, with the exception of the Dipnoi, in which possibly part of the water received for respiration passes through the nasal sac.
The olfactory organ is single in Branchiostoma and the Cyclostomes. In the former a small depression on the front end of the body, clothed with a ciliated epithelium, is regarded as a rudimentary organ of smell. In the adult Petromyzon a membranous tube leads from the single opening on the top of the head into the cartilaginous olfactory capsule, the inside of which is clothed by membranes prolonged into a posterior blind tube (Fig. [30], s), which penetrates the cartilaginous roof of the palate, but not the mucous membrane of the buccal cavity. In the Myxinoids the outer tube is strengthened by cartilaginous rings like a trachea; the capsule is lined by a longitudinally folded pituitary membrane, and the posterior tube opens backwards on the roof of the mouth; the opening is provided with a valve.
In all other Fishes the organ of smell is double, one being on each side; it consists of a sac lined with a pituitary membrane, and without, or with one or two, openings. The position of these openings is very different in the various orders or suborders of Fishes.
In the Dipnoi the nasal sac opens downwards by two wide openings which are within the boundaries of the cavity of the mouth. The pituitary membrane is transversely folded, the transverse folds being divided by one longitudinal fold. The walls of the sac are strengthened by sundry small cartilages.
Also in Chondropterygians the openings, of which there is one to each sac, are on the lower part of the snout, and in the Rays, Holocephali, and some Sharks, each extends into the cleft of the mouth. The openings are protected by valvular flaps, supported by small cartilages, and moved by muscles, whence it may be concluded that these fishes are able to scent (actively) as well as to smell (passively).