Reading Response: Look at Your Fish

In the short essay "Look At Your Fish", the author, a young, aspiring scientist named Samuel Hubbard Scudder, is given by his professor the at first perplexing task of examining a preserved specimen of a Haemulon fish using only his hands and his eyes. At first, Samuel is disappointed- he stares for hours at the stinking, ugly fish, believing that, after looking at it for a few minutes, he had seen all that he could possibly see. It would be many more hours of staring before he gets the idea to draw the fish, whereupon he begins to notice features on the fish that he hadn't before. Soon after what he must have thought was a major breakthrough, his professor finally returned, and, though he praised his use of drawing in making his observations, he told his disappointed student that he "had not even seen one of the most conspicuous features of the animal", and told Samuel to "look again, look again!" Its safe to assume that a little piece of our friend died inside after hearing these words, but he set about his task with a new eagerness anyway, and ended up discovering even more things about the fish. It still wasn't enough to satisfy his professor, who told him to go home for the night and ponder the fish even more. Miserable at the seeming impossibility of his teachers demands, he stays awake for much of the night, and does end up noticing the "most conspicuous feature" of the specimen- symmetrical sides with paired organs. The professor was delighted at this observation, and Samuel, surely equally happy that this assignment was over, asked what he should do next. Guess what the professor told him to do. For three long days Samuel examined the fish, looking at nothing else, always making new observations. And he began to realize that there was so much more to be seen on the fish, with the use of only his two eyes and his two hands, than he could have possibly imagined a few days ago. He would remember and apply the lessons learned from this stinking, preserved fish for the rest of his life, and would later describe his examination of the Haemulon as the most valuable and important experience in his scientific career.

I think what we can carry away from Samuel Scudders experience with the fish is that sometimes, before we can hope to understand something completely, we must look upon it, experience it again and again and again and again- until it seems that there is nothing more we can possiblly see in it, and then keep on looking. If we do, we will always keep on discovering new things, and keep on making new observations. "Facts are stupid things" Samuels teacher said, "until brought into connection with some general law". How can we hope to truly understand anything if we know only it's most basic features? A greater understanding must be attained, a view of a bigger picture. Through close observation comes greater understanding, and it's through this attained understanding that we can come to truly appreciate something.