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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



creature more than others might seem to require such preparation of 

 its food, it is the cramp ray, the whole canal of whose intestine is not 

 more than half as long as the stomach." This is certainly very curi- 

 ous, and, if it should be found that the same deficiency in point of di- 

 gestive accommodation exists in the gymnotus and the other fishes of 

 electric powers, the hypothesis would be converted almost into a cer- 

 tainty. In hunting up authorities to verify this curious fact, we find, 

 in the article on the gymnotus in Chambers's Encyclopaedia, that " all 

 the gymnotidie are remarkable for the position of the anus, which is 

 so very far forward as, in the electrical eel, to be before the gill-openings" 

 which would certainly seem to confirm Mr. Couch's supposition. 



Of the tremendous powers which can be given off in one shock, it 

 may be stated that Faraday, having made experiments with the speci- 

 men which was shown several years ago at the Adelaide Gallery, esti- 

 mated that an average shock emitted as great a force as the highest 

 force of a Leyden battery of fifteen jars, exposing 3,500 inches of 

 coated surface. 



There are five different fish endued with electrical powers. Of the 

 torpedo there are two species the old and new British torpedo ; one 

 of the Gymnotus electricus, or electric eel, as it is called ; and two of 

 the Malapterurus viz., M. electricus of the Nile, called Raash, or 

 thunder-fish, by the Arabs, and the Malapterurus Beninensis the 

 smallest of the electrical fishes, found in the Old Calabar River, which 

 falls into the Bight of Benin, on the coast of Africa. The latter fish is 

 a comparatively recent discovery, having been known to us only some 

 fifteen or sixteen years. We have no very good account of either of 

 these latter fish. A specimen of the last was sent to me three or four 

 years ago. It is a curious little fish, about five or six inches in length, 

 and very much resembles the Siluridce in general appearance, about the 

 head especially. It has long barbules, three on each side of the mouth, 

 and has a very bloated, puffy appearance, caused, it is to be presumed, 

 by the electric apparatus which is deposited between the skin and the 

 frame of the fish. In the torpedo the electric battery is placed in two 

 holes, one on either side of the eyes. Here a number of prismatic cells 

 are arranged in the fashion of a honey-comb, the number being regu- 

 lated by the age of the fish. These represent the jars in the battery, 

 and they are capable of giving out a terrible shock, as many an incau- 

 tious fisherman has experienced to his cost. We may trust also that 

 the torpedoes with which our coasts and harbors are likely to be 

 thronged will be capable of giving off even a severer shock; and 

 though gunpowder and gun-cotton will be the shocking agents in 

 these cases, yet electricity will play no unimportant part in their pro- 

 cess. Formerly quacks galvanized their patients by the application 

 f the natural torpedo, applying it to the joints and limbs for gout, 

 rheumatism, etc. That the electricity is true electricity has been 

 proved by a host of experiments. The electrometer has shown it, 



