back to the belly; spinous, striped, reticulate, or checquered, &c.

The parts of the body of fishes are external or internal. The former are

I. The HEAD. The head is placed at the anterior part of the body, and is obtuse, acute, slanting, aculeate, unarmed, &c. To this member belong the mouth, nose, jaws, lips, teeth, tongue, palate, eyes, and the branchial opercules, membrane and aperture. 1. The mouth is called superior when placed at the upper part of the head inferior when at the lower part; vertical when it descends perpendicularly, horizontal when it is parallel to the water in which the fish swims; oblique when it is neither vertical nor horizontal. 2. The nose or snout is cuspidate when its apex terminates in a sharp point; spatula-shaped when its extremity is flattened; triquetrous or tetraquetrous, having three or four flat sides; reflex when it is incurved towards the belly. 3. The jaws, always two in number, vary in respect to figure, &c., being subulate or awl-shaped; carinate or keelshaped; dentate, or provided with teeth; naked, not covered with lips, &c. 4. The lips are often not distinctly visible, and are either of a fleshy or a bony consistence; distinguished into plicate, or consisting of folds, and retractile, or capable of being drawn in or out. 5. The teeth are either acute, obtuse, serrate, similar, dissimilar, &c. 6. The tongue is acute or obtuse; bifid, or divided into two lobes; carinate, or ridged on the surface; dentate, or covered with teeth; papillous, or covered with fleshy points. 7. The palate is smooth (destitute of teeth or tubercles) or it is denticulate. 8. The nostrils are situated generally before the eyes, and are situated anterior when they occupy the fore part of the rostrum, or snout; posterior when they occupy the base; superior when they are on the crown of the head; cylindrical when they form a tube; solitary when there is only one on each side the head; double when there are two. 9. The eyes, which are two in number, consist of the pupil and the iris; besides which most of them have a firm pellucid membrane, called the nictitant membrane, which serves the purpose of an eyelid. The eyes are covered, semi-covered, or naked, according as they are furnished or otherwise with this membrane; vertical, or lateral, when situated on the crown or the sides of the head; binate when both are on the same side of the head; plane, or depressed, when the convexity of the ball does not rise above the surface of the head; convex when they exceed the surface; saliant when they are very prominent. 10. The branchial opercles, or gill-covers, are scaly or bony processes situated on both sides of the head, and close the gills; they are simple when composed of a single piece; diphyllous, triphyllous, &c., when composed of two, three, or more pieces; ciliate, having the margin fringed; scabrous when covered with asperities; striate, or marked with hollow lines; radiate when the marks run like rays, &c. 11. The branchial, or branchiostegous membrane, formed of crooked bony substances, is under and adheres to the opercula, being capable of being folded or expanded at pleasure; it is either

patent, i. e. projecting beyond the margin of the opercula and latent; or covered, according as it is more or less concealed by them. 12. The aperture of the gills is commonly lateral and cleft, formed by means of the gills and closed by the opercula. It is aculeate, or arched; operculate when covered by the opercles; pipeshaped, in the form of a tube.

II. The TRUNK.-This comprehends in fishes all the body, from the nape to the fins, and consists of the branchia or gills, throat, thorax, back, sides, abdomen, lateral line, anus, tail, and scales. 1. The gills are generally formed of four unequal bones, furnished with small soft appendages, like the beards of a feather, of a red color. They are aculeate when provided with spines; denuded when wanting opercles, &c. 2 The throat is situated between the branchial apertures, and is said to be swelling when it exceeds the level of the body; carinate when angulated underneath; plane when in a line with the thorax and head. 3. The thorax is comprehended between the throat and pectoral fin. 4. The back, or upper part of the body, extends from the nape to the origin of the tail. It is apterygious if without fins; monopterygious, dipterygious, &c., if furnished with one or two, &c., fins; convex, serrate, &c. 5. The sides are between the back and the abdomen. 6. The abdomen is the under part of the trunk, between the extremity of the thorax and the tail; it is either carinate, serrate, or plane. 7. The lateral line is a line formed by tubercles or lines along the sides, and terminating at the fins; it is straight, curved, broken, interrupted, double, &c. 8. The anus, or vent, is the external orifice of the rectum, said to be jugular when situated under the branchial opercles; pectoral when under the gills; remote when distant from the head; mean equally near the head and the tail. 9. The tail is the solid part of the trunk, and either round, carinate, muricate, or apterygious, &c. 10. The scales are cartilaginous integuments, oval; orbiculate, i. e. nearly round; smooth; ciliate, i. e. set with setaceous processes; serrate, i. e. toothed like a saw; or imbricate, when the scales partly lap over one another.

III. The FINS. The fins are bony rays, connected by a tender membrane, and denominated, according to their position, dorsal, pectoral, ventral, anal, or caudal. 1. The dorsal fins are situated on the upper part of the trunk, between the head and tail, and vary in number; whence called monopterygious, dipterygious, &c.; they are said to be fleshy when covered with a thick skin or muscular substance; and ramentaceous when furnished with filamentous appendages, &c. 2. The pectoral fins are on each side, about the aperture of the gills, and are solitary, double, or altogether wanting. 3. The ventral fins are in the under part of the fish, and are abdominal, jugular, thoracic, &c., according to their situation. 4. The anal fin is between the anus and the caudal fin, and is bifurcate, or two forked; coalescing, i. e. united with the caudal fin; longitudinal, extending from the anus to the tail; posterior when placed at the end of the tail near the caudal fin. 5. The caudal fin

is at the extremity of the tail, and is equal or entire when its rays are of equal length; lanceolate when the middle rays are the largest; emarginate when they are the shortest, &c.

The internal parts of fishes are,

I. ORGANS AND VISCERA.-The principal organs and viscera that have been distinguished in fishes are the brain, esophagus or gullet, stomach, swimming or air-bladder, heart, intestines, liver, gall-bladder, spleen, urinary-bladder, kidneys, diaphragm, peritonæum, and ova. Fishes have no external organ of hearing, and were long supposed to have none internal; but modern naturalists conceive that they have found traces of this organ in a membrane at some distance behind the eyes of several fishes, as the skate, cod-fish, &c. Those who deny the sense of hearing to fishes suppose they perceive sounds through their feeling, being affected by the vibratory motion sounds produce in the water. 1. The brain is divided into three lobes, surrounded by a kind of matter resembling saliva. In this region are the optic and olfactory nerves. 2. The œsophagus or gullet is short, and scarcely to be distinguished from the stomach, which is a membranous sack divided into two lobes. 3. The swimming or air-bladder, called also the sound, is an oblong white membranous bag, in which is contained a quantity of elastic air. This organ lies close to the back bone, and has a strong muscular coat, by which it can contract itself. Flat fish are unprovided with this bladder. 4. The heart is of a triangular form, with the apex upwards, and consists of one auricle and one ventricle. It is enclosed in a pericardium. 5. The intestines are in general short, making only three turns, the last of which terminates in a common outlet or vent. 6. The liver 's remarkably large, commonly on the left side, and contains a great proportion of oil or fat. 7. The gall-bladder is oval, and is under the right side of the liver. It communicates with the stomach by means of the cystic duct and choledochic canal. 8. The spleen varies in form and color, and is situated near the backbone, so as to be subject to the alternate constriction and dilatation of the air-bladder. 9. The urinary bladder is in most fishes of an oval form, terminating under the tail. 10. The kidneys are two flat pyramidal bodies, of a reddish color, and the length of the abdomen. 11. The diaphragm is a white, shining membrane, which separates the thorax from the abdomen. The peritoneum is a thin dark membrane, that invests the contents of the abdomen. 13. The ova, or roe, in the females, and the milt, or soft roe in the males, are disposed into two large oblong bodies, one on each side the abdomen.

12.

II. BONES.-The bones of the skeleton of a fish may be divided into those of the head, thorax, abdomen, and fius. 1. The head contains a vast number, in the perch as many as eighty; those of the skull are the principal; besides which are those of the palate, the jaw bones, the opercular bones, &c. 2. The thorax is a cavity formed by the sternum, or back-bone, the vertebræ, clavicles, and scapula. 3. The abdomen is encompassed by the ribs and ossa pelvis, defending the viscera. 4. The tail is composed

of bones which terminate the vertebral column; the fins consist of an intertexture of ossicles and firm membranes.

III. MUSCLES.-The muscles in fish consist of the two lateral muscles proceeding from the head to the tail, along the side, which have transverse branches that are similar and parallel: those of the caudal and pectoral fins which have four muscles each, namely, two erectors and two depressors; each ventral fin has also three muscles, one erector and two depressors. 2. The carinal muscles of the back and tail are slender, closely united, and proportioned in number to the dorsal fins. Those fishes with one dorsal fin having one pair of carinal muscles; those with two dorsal fins three pair, &c. 3. The interspinous muscles are those which raise and depress the dorsal and anal fins, of which there are four to each interspinous ray; namely, two erectors and two depressors.

IV. VESSELS.-The principal vessels are, 1. The aorta, attached to the apex of the heart, which sends out numerous branches to the gills, and is afterwards subdivided into very minute vessels. 2. The sinus venosus, which communicates with the auricle by a large aperture, and receives at the other end three principal trunks of veins. 3. The lacteals and lymphatics, which, together with the thoracic duct, &c., form a network about the heart, and in various parts of the trunk.

We have adopted throughout this work the arrangement of Linnæus in most departments of natural history: and have described the different species of animals under their respective genera. It can only remain in this place to give a brief sketch of the history of ichthyology as a science (if indeed it has any history prior to the time of Linnæus), and to add his and Cuvier's principal orders.

The authors who have left treatises on this subject are numerous; and are ranged by Artedi into their proper classes, with great care. The following is an abstract of his account, with some additions:

The systematical ichthyologists are Aristotle, Pliny, Isidore, Albertus Magnus, Gaza, the interpreter of Aristotle, Marschall, Wootton, Bellonius, Rondeletius, Salvian, Gesner, Aldrovand, Johnston, Charlton, Willughby, Ray, Artedi, and Linnæus.

Those who have written of the fishes of particular places are, Ovid, of the fishes of the Euxine; Oppian, of those of the Adriatic; Ausonius, of those of the Moselle; Mangolt, of those of the Podamic lake; Paulus Jovius, of those of the Tyrrhene Sea; Bened. Jovius, of those of the lake Larius; Petrus Gillius, of those of the Massilian Sea; Figulus, of those of the Moselle; Salvian, of those of the Tyrrhene Sea; Schwenkfeldt, of those of Silesia: Schonefeldt, of those of Hamburgh; Margrave of the Brasilian fishes; Ruysel, of those of Amboyna; and Francis Valentine, of those of the same place. Of these authors, Ovid, Ausonius, Oppian, and Bened. Jovius, wrote in verse, the rest in prose.

Those who are to be regarded only as com

pilers from the works of other writers. Pliny, Elian, Athæneus, Isidore, the author of the Libri De Natura Rerum, Albertus Magnus, Johannes Cuba, Marschall, Gesner in great part, Aldrovand in great part. Johnston, Charlton, &c. In regard to method, some have treated of fishes in alphabetical order; some have followed a natural method more or less perfect; others have attended to no method at all, as Ovid, Ælian, Atheneus, Ausonius, Hildegarde, De Pinguia, Paulus, and Bened. Jovius, Figulus, Salvian in his History of the Roman Fishes, and Ruysch those who have written alphabetically, are Cuba, Marschall, Salvian in his Tabula Piscatoria, Gesner, Schonefeldt, Johnston.

Among the authors who have adopted some kind of rethod, may first be placed those who have treated of fishes according to the place where they are caught; as Oppian, Rondeletius, Aldrovand, Johnston, and Charlton. Those who have treated of fishes, dividing them into cetaceous, spinose, and cartilaginous, are Aristotle, the author of this method, Wootton, Willughby, Ray; the last two authors have added to this plan the numbering the rays of the fins on the back.

This was the first step towards the arrangement of Linnæus or Artedi; for the latter in fact was the original author of the system commonly known as that of the illustrious Swede. Willughby's work, entitled De Historia Piscium, was printed at Oxford in 1686, and unfolded many new and accurate views of the anatomy and physiology of fishes. Ray published, in 1707, his Synopsis Methodica Piscium, which may be regarded as an abridged and corrected view of Willughby's larger work, and as indicating a series of genera. This valuable descriptive catalogue continued to be appealed to as a standard, till Artedi and Linnæus effected numerous important changes.

The former of these died before he could mature his plan, and Linnæus, his friend and coadjutor, first published it in 2 vols. 8vo. under the titles of Bibliotheca Ichthyologia, and Philosophia Ichthyologica: republished in 1792 in four vols. But Artedi instituted the orders and genera, and defined the characters on which these divisions are founded. Independently of the cetaceous tribes, which are now classed with the mammalia, his method consisted of four great divisions, viz. 1. The malacopterygian, which denoted those fishes which have soft fins, or fins with bony rays, but without spines: this order included twenty-one genera. 2. The acanthopterygian, or those with spiny fins, containing sixteen genera. 3. The branchiostegous, which corresponds to the amphibia nantes of Linnæus, which want the operculum, or branchiostegous membrane and 4. The chondropterygian, which answers to that part of the amphibia nantes which have not true bones, but only cartilages, and the rays of whose fins scarcely differ from a membrane. In the first edition of the System of Nature Linnæus wholly adopted this method, but more matured reflection led him to make considerable alterations.

It may be worth mentioning, in conclusion of this sketch, that Klein and Gronovius have also

been projectors of new ichthyological systems, which have rivalled the Linnæan. Klein distributed fishes into three sections, according as they had lungs, and visible or invisible gills; but his subdivisions were very numerous and complex, and his scheme never extensively adopted. That of Gronovius was founded on the presence or absence, and the number or the nature of the fins: his first class including all the cetaceous animals, and the second all the fishes properly so called. The chondropterygian, and the osseous or bony, form two other great divisions, and the osseous are sub-divided into bronchiostegous and branchial. These last are grouped according to the Linnæan rules, but, in the formation of the genera, the number of the dorsal fins is admitted as a character. Scopoli also struck out an original path, and assumed the position of the anus as the basis of his three primary divisions; his secondary characters sometimes coincided with those of Gronovius, and sometimes with those of Linnæus; while his third series of characters was drawn from the form of the body, or that of the teeth. Gouan, of Montpelier, is another ichthyologist who has attempted to unite and improve the systems of Artedi and Linnæus. The authors to whom we have thus referred, excepting Belon, Rondelet, and Gronovius, published their works without any regular series of plates; but there are others who have given very valuable figures of fishes, as Seba, in his collection of the subjects of natural history; Catesby, in his Natural History of Carolina; Broussonet, in his Ichthyologia; and Bloch, in his Natural History of Fishes, published at Berlin, in German, and afterwards reprinted in 1785, in French, as a part of the Histoire Naturelle de Buffon. The original work of Bloch includes about 600 species of fishes, beautifully colored. La Cépéde, the friend and continuator of Buffon, also executed an elaborate and extensive work on the natural history of fishes. He divides them into two secondary classes, viz. the cartilaginous and the osseous; each consisting of four divisions, taken from the combinations of the presence or absence of the operculum, and of the branchial membrane: thus, according to this system, the first division of the cartliaginous includes those fishes which have neither operculum nor branchial membranes; the second, which have no operculum, but a membrane; the third, which have an operculum, but no membrane; and, the fourth, those that have both. The same characters, stated in an inverse order, determine the divisions of the osseous species. Each of these divisions is distributed into the Linnæan orders, and these again are divided into the Linnæan genera.

In the Linnæan system the fins of fishes are the foundation of the first four orders, and are named from their situation on the animal, viz. the dorsal or back-fins; the pectoral or breastfins; the ventral or belly-fins; the anal or ventfin; and the caudal or tail-fin. The ventral-fins are considered by our great naturalist as analogous to feet in quadrupeds. The other two orders are formed from the nature of the gills: thus,

PISCINA, in antiquity, a large basin in a public place or square, where the Roman youth learned to swim; and which was surrounded with a high wall, to prevent filth from being thrown into it. This word is also used for a lavatory among the Turks, placed in the middle court of a mosque, or temple, where the mussulmans wash themselves before they offer their prayers.

PISCO, a seaport town of the province of Ica, Peru. It was formerly a large and rich place; but was taken and sacked in 1624 by some piratical adventurers, and afterwards in 1686 by the buccaneers. In 1687 it was destroyed by an earthquake, the sea completely inundating it. The inhabitants then removed to the place where it now stands. The whole town consists of 300 families, chiefly mestizoes, mulattoes, and blacks; the whites being much the smallest number The road of Pisco is capacious enough to hold a royal navy, but open towards the north; the wind, however, is rarely in that quarter, and never dangerous. 118 miles south of Lima.

PISGAH, or PHASGAH, a mountain on the other side Jordan, joined to Abarim and Nebo, and running south to the mouth of the Arnon; from which Moses had a view of the promised land, and where he died, after appointing Joshua his successsor. Wells takes Pisgah and Nebo to be different names of the same mountain, a part or branch of the mountain Abarim. Or that the top of Nebo was peculiarly called Pisgah; or some other part of it cut out in steps, as the primitive word denotes: and thus it is rendered by Aquila, by a Greek word signifying cut out. PISH, interj. & v. a. A contemptuous exclamation. This is sometimes spoken and written pshaw. I imagine them formed by chance,' says Dr. Johnson; but see PSHAW. An expression of contempt: to express contempt.

There was never yet philosopher
That could endure the toothach patiently;
However they have writ the stile of Gods,
And make a pish at chance or sufferance.

Shakspeare.

She frowned and cried pish, when I said a thing that I stole. Spectator.

If you shall give way to any of these vicious courses, ye shall grieve the Holy Spirit of God, and that will be a shameful sin of ingratitude in you, how slight soever it may seem to a carnal heart, and by such a one may be past over, and pisht at, in imitation of the careless note of Pharaoh! Bp. Hall. He turned over your Homer, shook his head, and pished at every line of it.

Pope.

PISIDIA, an inland country of Asia Minor, between Phrygia, Pamphylia, Galatia, and Isauria. Mela 1. c. 2. Strabo xii. Acts xiii. 14-52. PISIS, a native of Thespia, who obtained

great influence among the Thebans, and acted with great zeal and courage in defence of their liberties. He was at last taken prisoner by Demetrius, who made him governor of Thespia.

PISISTRATIDÆ, the two sons of Pisistratus, viz. Hipparchus and Hippias, who rendered themselves as illustrious as their father. They governed with great moderation; but the name of tyrant or sovereign being insupportable to the Athenians, Harmodius and Aristogiton conspired against them; Hipparchus was murdered, and Hippias was at last expelled by the united efforts of the Athenians and their allies. The rest of the Pisistratidæ followed him in his banishment; and after they had refused to accept the liberal offers of the princes of Thessaly and the king of Macedonia, who wished them to settle in their respective territories, they retired to Sigæum, which their father had, in the summit of his power, conquered and bequeathed to his posterity. The Pisistratidae were banished from Athens about eighteen years after the death of Pisistratus.

PISISTRATUS, an Athenian, who early distinguished himself by his valor in the field, and by his address and eloquence at home. After he had rendered himself the favorite of the populace by his liberality, and by the intrepidity with which he had fought their battles, particularly near Salamis, he resolved to make himself sovereign of his country. Every thing seemed favorable to his ambitious views; but Solon alone opposed him, and discovered his duplicity before the public assembly. He was twice banished, and, upon his being the third time received by the people of Athens as their sovereign, he sacrificed to his resentment the friends of Megacles, but did not lose sight of the public good; and, while he sought the aggrandisement of his family, he did not neglect the dignity and the honor of the Athenian name. He died about A.A. C. 528, after he had enjoyed the sovereign power at Athens for thirty-three years, and was succeeded by his son Hipparchus. Pisistratus claims our admiration for his justice, his liberality, and his moderation. It is to his labors that we are indebted for the preservation of the poems of Homer; and he was the first, according to Cicero, who introduced them at Athens in the order in which they now stand. He also established a public library at Athens; and the valuable books which he had diligently collected were carried into Persia when Xerxes made himself master of Athens.

PIS'MIRE, n. s. Sax. myna; Belg. pismiere. Mr. Thomson thinks of Teut. maur, and fys, bustle. An ant; an emmet.

Prejudicial to fruit are pismires, caterpillars, and
Mortimer.

mice.

Prior.

His cloaths, as atoms might prevail, Might fit a pismire or a whale. PISMIRE. See FORMICA and TERMES. PISO (Lucius Calpurnius), surnamed Frugi on account of his frugality, was tribune of the people, A. A. C. 149, and afterwards consul. During his tribuneship he published a law against extortion, entitled Lex Calpurnia de Pecuniis repetundis. He happily ended the war in Sicily. To reward the services of one of his sons, who