MUSCULAR SYSTEM.—The various muscles of the body may be arranged in two systems: (i.) the _somatic_ or _parietal_, composed of striated or voluntary muscle-fibres; and (ii.) the _splanchnic_ or _visceral_, consisting for the most part of unstriated or involuntary fibres. Somatic muscles form the great lateral longitudinal muscles of the trunk and tail, which retain the primitive embryonic metamerism to a greater extent in Fishes than in any other Vertebrates, and are the principal muscles associated with locomotion. The lateral muscles are composed of a series of transverse muscle-segments or myotomes, which are >-shaped, or S-shaped, or they even take a zigzag course from above downward. The myotomes are disposed in pairs, and they are separated from one another by fibrous septa or myocommata. Each myotome is divided into a dorsal or epiaxial portion, and a ventral or hypaxial portion, by a longitudinal, horizontal, fibrous septum extending outwards from the vertebral centra to the skin. The muscles of the pectoral and pelvic fins are derivatives from more or fewer of the adjacent myotomes. The splanchnic muscles include the musculature of the walls of the alimentary canal, as well as those specialised portions of the visceral system which are represented by the muscles of the branchial arches and the jaws, and are composed of striated fibres. LOCOMOTION.—A Fish and a Bird are equally remarkable for the many and various ways in which they are adapted for locomotion in the particular medium in which they live. In its shape the Fish is admirably adapted for cleaving the water. Spindle-like in shape, but thicker in front than behind, a Fish resembles {350}a double wedge, the thick part of which is represented by the head and one of the thin edges by the free hinder margin of the caudal fin. The body is bounded by smooth flowing contour lines, unbroken by any sharp separation of the body regions from one another, and with no points of resistance to its forward motion through the water. The body being thicker in front than behind, and, as seen in transverse section, broader above than below, it follows that its centre of gravity will be nearer the head than the tail, and nearer the dorsal than the ventral surface. The dorsal position of the centre of gravity necessarily renders the equilibrium of the body unstable, and were it not for the balancing action of the paired fins the Fish would float belly upwards, as is always the case after death. Most Fishes are provided with a membranous gas-containing sac, the air-bladder, the principal function of which is to render the Fish, bulk for bulk, of the same weight as the water, so that in this position of equilibrium, or plane of least effort, the animal can execute its various locomotor movements with a minimum expenditure of muscular effort—an advantage which no other animal possesses.[414] To give stability to the body, and to steady its course when swimming, the Fish has