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). [Illustration: Fig. 47.--Nostrils of _Raia lemprieri_, with nasal flaps reverted.] In the majority of _Teleostei_ the olfactory capsules are lateral or superior on the snout, covered externally by the skin, each usually pierced by two openings, which are either close together, or more or less remote from each other; the posterior is generally open, the anterior provided with a valve or tube. In the _Chromides_ and _Labroidei ctenoidei_ a single opening only exists for each sac. In the _Murænidæ_ the two openings of each side are either superior, or lateral, or labial, that is, they are continued downwards and pierce the margin of the upper lip. In many Tetrodonts nasal openings are absent, and replaced by a conical papilla, in which the olfactory nerve terminates.