Excerpt from On the Food of Fishes Having ascertained what minute forms or other descrip tions of life are employed for the nourishment of the fish, the inquiry branches off into what it is that governs and controls migration of these forms, as currents, soils, tempe rature, atmospheric vicissitudes, or some more minute food upon which they themselves subsist What are their enemies and their friends, and the conditions which favour the pre sence or absence of either class? Fishes may for convenience' sake be divided into preda cious, omnivorous, and herbivorous species, which necessitate an organisation suitable for each. Some are rapid swimmers in order to overtake prey, or escape from their foes others, which obtain their food by means of stratagem, are con structed for a slower mode of progression. But, for two reasons, I must omit the consideration of form first, because such are familiar to my hearers, and have represen tatives among the collections shown in this Exhibition and secondly, because such would unduly lengthen my paper. The various descriptions of teeth in fishes are more or less demonstrative of the great difference which must exist as to the food they consume some being prehensile, in order to assist in capturing and retaining their prey; others are more rounded for the purpose of crushing the shells upon which they mainly subsist. In carp the teeth are restricted to the throat, but the variations are too numerous to enter upon in this place. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.