. ef Fishes found in Cornwall. 89 
CENTRISCUS. 
Trumpetfish. C. Scolopaz.—4A fish of this species was thrown 
-on shore in St. Austel Bay, and came into the possession 
of William Rashleigh, Esq. of Menabilly, a gentleman 
- distinguished for his love of natural history, who possesses 
a fine drawing of it. It was five inches long, and from the 
back to the belly one inch and two-eighths ; in thickness 
three-eighths of an inch ; it weighed three drams. The pro- 
boscis, which to the eye measured an inch and five-eighths, 
was formed of a bony substance, which was continued along 
the back, where it terminated in a sharp point, and spreading 
in the middle, where it makes an obtuse angle just above a 
small fin behind the gills. 
CHONDROPTERYGIOUS FISHES. 
Rara. 
Torpedo or Cramp Ray. R. Torpedo.—This fish is extremely 
rare. The numbing power of the Torpedo has been much 
illustrated by the discoveries which have been made in 
galvanism ; but the cause of this phænomenon appears to 
me not to have been explained. I would therefore suggest 
the following observations on this subject. It has been 
supposed, that by this faculty the Torpedo is enabled the 
more readily to secure its prey ; and when Pennant took 
a Surmullet from the stomach of a Torpedo, he concluded 
that it must have been first disabled by the shock before 
it could have been swallowed by its enemy. But I have 
known a Lobster, whose agility is much superior to that of 
a Surmullet, taken from the stomach of a Skate; which fish 
possesses no such formidable means of disabling its prey. 
Without denying that the Torpedo may devour that which 
YOL. XIV. N : it 
