Fishes that Tipple in the Deep

Abstract

Mammals living in water (e. g., dolphins, porpoises, seals, walruses, whales) have poorly developed olfactory organs and are said, although the evidence appears to be scanty, to have an extremely poor sense of smell. As for fish, Duméril was evidently quite sure that they are completely lacking in olfactory power. “There can be no true sense of smell”, he affirmed, “in an animal habitually immersed in a liquid.” Parker, on the other hand, was obviously equally sure that the olfactory organs of fish are true distance receptors and are not less truly organs of smell than are those of the higher vertebrates. There exists also, of course, a third possibility — perhaps this was all that Parker claimed — namely, that some species of fish have a sense of smell whilst others have not. The dogfish, we are told, seeks its food exclusively by scent whilst the carp’s search is wholly guided by sight. Thus, as in the case of birds, there has been a conflict of opinion. This, perhaps, has not been so sharp as was the ornithological conflict nor has any Audubon entered the lists.

Je me propose d’établier, dans le cours de ce Mémoire, que Porgane du goût n’existe pas et ne pouvoit pas même exister dans la bouche des poissons, par une suite nécessaire de leur manière de respirer; que les organes, regardés jusqu’ici comme propres à l’odorat dans ces animaux, sont destinés à percevoir une sensation analogue à celle des saveurs; enfin qu’il ne peut y avoir de véritable odeur pour un animal habituellement plongé dans un liquide. Duméril

When the anterior nasal apertures of this fish [Fundulus heroclitus] are closed by being stitched up, the fish reacts to wads containing meat as it does to those without meat. On reopening the nasal apertures by loosening the stitches, the ability to distinguish between the two kinds of wads is again shown by the fish. As the power to discover distant hidden food is lost by both kinds of fishes [Fundulus heteroclitus and Amiurus nebulosus] when their olfactory organs are prevented from acting, even though their organs of taste are in normal condition, it is concluded that their olfactory organs are as truly organs of smell as are those of the higher vertebrates, and that their olfactory organs are, therefore, properly classed as distance receptors. Parker

Man hat viel darüber gestritten, ob nur gasförmige oder auch flüssige Substanzen gerochen werden. Dieser Streit ist eigentlich müßig, denn da die Nervenendigungen mit einer capillaren Schleimschicht überzogen sind, muß sich jedes Gas zunächst in diesem Schleim lösen, ehe es mit den Nervenendigungen in Berührung kommt. Zuntz