TORPEDO. 121 



that if a living fish be placed in a vessel of sea-water, a stream 

 of that water poured on the hand or foot will convey the 

 influence. 



Pliny, whose intention it was to bring into a small and 

 convenient compass the whole of the current knowledge of his 

 age, several times mentions the properties of this fish; which, 

 as commander of the Roman fleet on the coast of Italy, he 

 must have seenj but the chief part of Avhat he has handed 

 down to us is copied from other writers. He says, it is to be 

 classed among the cartilaginous fishes, and in its habits shews 

 a consciousness of its peculiar powers; although these powers do 

 not exert an influence on its own body. During the winter 

 it lies hid in some depression at the bottom of the sea, and 

 at other times conceals itself in a soft and muddy place, where 

 it a;waits the appi-oach of any fish, which it strikes with the 

 shock when it is oflf its guard, and then immediately darts upon 

 and seizes it. In addition to what others have said of the 

 numbing influence passing to a distance through a rod or staflT, 

 and of inflicting deadness on the most vigorous arm, he adds, 

 that it is able to rivet to the ground the feet of any one, 

 however otherwise active in the race. He goes on to state, that 

 the female produces fourscore young ones at a birth, at the 

 (we suppose autumnal) eqixinox; and from the manner in which 

 he speaks of the eggs, it would appear that he believed the 

 young to be produced alive: a circumstance in which later 

 observation shews him to have been mistaken. It remained 

 for Oppian to embody the several observations made by others 

 in his poem on fish and fishing; a work in which we can 

 discover the observer of nature, even when the facts related 

 are in great part founded on the authority of more ancient 

 writers. I will remark, however, that he mentions a circum- 

 stance that is overlooked or misapprehended by his poetical 

 translator; but which is important as shewing his knowledge 

 of the fact, that the torporific power was seated in a particular 

 part of its body: 



"The Cranipfisli, when the (hook's dread) pain alarms. 

 Exerts his conscious skill and powerful arms, 

 Applies his loins, and bids the line receive 

 The numbing force it is his will to give. 

 The flowing influence its volume rears, 

 Rolls up the slender length of slippery hairs, 



