I here arrange in doubt the Frog-fishes and the Shads, although the last are Abdominales. But they deviate from the Carps and Pikes by their asymmetrical, naked or mailed body, the large transverse mouth, the eyes staring upwards, and the arrested branchial opercula.
Order 2. Vascular, Conchozooid Fishes—Stummelflosser.
3537. Asymmetrical Osseous Fishes, Apodales, and Jugulares.
Among the true Osseous Fishes the Eels must undoubtedly range the lowest on account of their vermiform and asquamous body, and the want of ventral fins. To them are allied the Jugulares, namely, the Blennii and Gadidæ, as well as the Plaice; lastly, the asymmetrical Thoracici without scales, being quite naked or covered with scutes, as the Gobii and Triglæ.
Fam. 4. Mussel-Fishes, Eels.
Body naked and serpentiform, without ventral fins.
The Eels, from their naked, cylindrical or riband-shaped body, the long dorsal and coccygeal fin, the small branchial foramina occasionally confluent beneath the neck, and by their dwelling in the mud, rank among the imperfect Fishes. The one set have soft, the other hard, fin-rays, and on that account they have not simply been separated, but even far removed from each other. This difference alone is not so great as to justify their being arranged, when the structure of the body agrees in other respects, into distinct orders. The influence of the dorsal spines upon the life and natatory or waving movement of Fishes is so slight, and its value generally, in comparison with other parts, to be taken so little into account, that a natural arrangement can never result from these appendages, which do not deserve to be called organs, and viewed as principal characters.
Fam. 5. Snail-Fishes, Haddocks.
Jugulares without distinct scales and spines on the branchial operculum, and hard fin-rays.
These Fishes are allied to the Eels by the aborted ventral fins, the tolerably cylindrical, naked, or small-scaled body and soft dorsal fins. The viviparous Blennius bears with us its name of Aalmutter not in vain, for it resembles a shortened, slimy Eel. The Gadidæ are indeed less slimy and have in part scales, but, by reason of their lengthened form and their fins, cannot be removed far from the Eels; the same holds good of the Plaice.