BRAIN OF SWORDFISH

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 796, 17 October 1929, Page 16

BRAIN OF SWORDFISH

SIZE OF WALNUT IN 400 POUNDER “CROCODILE TEARS” A MYTH It does not matter whether a triangular gang hook, or a singlehook is used on a swordfish—the catch cannot feel pain. This is the opinion of Dr. W. A. Fairclough, who interestingly recounted the results of his studies on the visual and mental processes of fish, lecturing in the University College hall last evening. At Mayor Island six years ago, Ur. Fairclough roughly dissected with a tomahawk and a sheath knife, . the head of a 4001 b swordfish. A landtern slide depicting the result of this post-mortem examination, showed the audience that the 400 pounder had a brain the size of a walnut. Ur. Fairclough concluded that the mental processes of the swordfish were nonexistent. Pain was a mental process in the human being, and therefore, he believed that the swordfish was incapable of feeling pain. The suggestion that the fish could distinguish between the types of hooks used by deep-sea anglers was, in his opinion, absurd. After many ingenious experiments, the majority of scientific investigators had concluded that all fish were totally colour-blind, remarked Dr. Fairclough. This view, however, was contrary to the opinion of trout anglers, who held that this specie of fish had a decided preference for red, orange, green, brown and blue. Anglers therefore, spent much time in selecting a fly colour that they believed would best deceive the fish. “I think there is no doubt a trout can tell a “Jock Scott’’ from a “Black Doctor,” he added. Common belief that the term “crocodile tears,’’ as applied to people, ;was derived from the partiality of the crocodile for sobbing, was shattered, said the doctor. An observer, he said, had squeezed a mixture of salt and onion juice into the eyes of four species of croco4iles, but had failed to produce the tears, and, thus the experimenter concluded that the popular idea the amphibians shed tears p-was a myth. The functions of crocodile®' tear glands was to lubricate their food, he added.