532 ORDER MALACOPTERYGII APODF.S. 



most frequently as far as the end of the tail, but there 

 is no fin along the entire back. 



Gymnotus (properly so called), Lacepede, 



Even have no fin at the end of the tail, under which 

 the anal fin extends. 



The true Gymnoti have the skin without percep- 

 tible scales. Their intestines, several times plicated, 

 occupy but a moderate cavity. They have numerous 

 cceca, and a stomach in the form of a short and obtuse 

 sac, very much plaited internally. One of their air- 

 bladders, cylindrical and elongated, extends very far 

 back into a sinus of the abdominal cavity ; the other 

 oval and bilobate, of a thick substance, occupies the 

 upper part of the abdomen on the oesophagus. 



The only species with which we are acquainted are 

 from the rivers of South America. The most cele- 

 brated is 



Gymnotus electricus, L., Bl. 156., which from its 

 form, almost all of the same thickness, and its obtuse 

 head and tail, has received the name of Electric eel. 

 It arrives to the length of five or six feet, and com- 

 municates such violent electric shocks that it knocks 

 down men and horses ; it uses this power at will, and 

 gives it what direction it pleases, even without the 

 necessitv of contact, for it can kill fishes at a consi- 

 derable distance. But this power becomes exhausted 

 by exercise, and to recover it the animal has need of 

 repose and nutriment. (See Humb. Obs. Zool. I. p. 

 49, &c). The organ which produces these singular 



