126 TORPEDO. 



These electric organs are two-fold, and one of them is lodged 

 on each side of the head and gills. They are formed of very 

 numerous perpendicular pyramids, the ends of which are covered 

 by the integuments clothing the back and under part of the 

 body. Each column appears like a mass of clear jelly, but on 

 close examination it is seen to be formed of membranous plates, 

 fastened at their margins to a case or capsule; and each one 

 separated from the next by a small quantity of albuminous fluid. 

 Each cell thus formed has its own separate lining, and the 

 covering which encloses the whole forms the seat on which the 

 blood-vessels and nerves, supplying this organ with their special 

 fluids, are spread abroad, before they enter to execute their 

 specific functions. The blood conveyed thither is of the purest 

 kind, and the nerves are such as are well fitted to convey a 

 very large supply of their proper influence; the first four of 

 them being as large as the spinal cord itself, from which all 

 the other functions of animal life are bestowed on the body. 

 As no other special function resides in the pectoral fins, and 

 the general perceptions of the Torpedo are dull and inactive, 

 it is to be concluded that these nerves supplying the electric 

 organs are formed thus large, for the sole purpose of conveying 

 the required energy from the nervous centre, where it is 

 prepared, to the mass of cells; the proper function of which is 

 to accumulate and retain it, until the instinctive feeling of the 

 fish shall cause it to be discharged, either as a weapon of 

 defence, or to supply its need, in the disabling and capture of 

 its prey. 



The ancients possessed but little discrimination in detecting 

 the smaller differences which mark the distinction between 

 nearly allied species of any kind of creatures; and they were 

 further prevented from assigning to those differences any 

 important value from the general opinion of philosophers, that 

 variations from a known type of form were to be ascribed to 

 a kind of bastardy, arising from the indiscriminate conjunction 

 of the sexes of kindred kinds. It is in modern times only 

 that the last-named supposition has been judged unsound; and 

 we owe it to naturalists of late date that we are able to assign 

 what is known of the variations of the Torpedo, as it is found 

 in the seas of Europe, to two separate species, with the pro- 

 bability that there may also be a third. 



