Aristotle 49 



purposes and 1 broken off on insertion into the mantle cavity of 

 the female. 1 The actual process of reproduction does not seem 

 to have been observed until i894. 2 



Aristotle is perhaps at his best and happiest when describing 

 the habits of living animals that he has himself observed. 

 Among his most pleasing accounts are those of the iishing-frog 

 and torpedo. In these creatures he did not fail to notice the 

 displacement of the fins associated with the depressed form of 

 the body. 



' In marine creatures ', he says, ' one may observe many 

 ingenious devices adapted to the circumstances of their lives. 

 For the account commonly given of the frog-fish or angler is 

 quite true ; as is also that of the torpedo. . . . 



' In the Torpedo and the Fishing-frog the breadth of the 

 anterior part of the body is not so great as to render 

 locomotion by fins impossible, but in consequence of it the 

 upper pair [pectorals] are placed further back and the under 

 pair [ventrals] are placed close to the head, while to compensate 

 for this advancement they are reduced in size so as to be smaller 

 than the upper ones. 



( In the Torpedo the two upper fins [pectorals] are placed 

 in the tail, and the fish uses the broad expansion of its body 

 to supply their place, each lateral half of its circumference 

 serving the office of a fin. . . . The torpedo narcotizes the 

 creatures that it wants to catch, overpowering them by 

 the force of shock that is resident in its body, and feeds upon 

 them ; it also hides in the sand and mud, and catches all the 

 creatures that swim in its way and come under its narcotizing 

 influence. This phenomenon has been actually observed in 

 operation. . . . The torpedo-fish is known to cause a numbness 

 even in human beings. 



' The frog-fish has a set of filaments that project in front of its 



1 J. B. Verany, Mollusques mediterraneens, Genoa, 1851. 



2 E. Racovitza. Archives de zoologie experimental e y Paris, 1894. 

 2540-1 D 



