90 Mr. Couch on the Natural History 



it disables by the shock, I conceive that the principal use 

 of this power has a reference to the functions of digestion. 

 It is well known that an effect of lightning, or the elec- 

 tric shock, is to deprive animated bodies very suddenly of 

 their irritability ; and that thereby they are rendered more 

 readily disposed to pass into a state of dissolution than 

 they would otherwise be ; in which condition the digestive 

 powers of the stomach can be much more speedily and 

 effectually exerted on them. If any creature may seem to 

 require such a preparation of its food more than another, it 

 is the Torpedo, the whole intestinal canal of which is not 

 more than half as long as the stomach. 



Squalus. 



Monkfish. Sq. Squatina. — Common ; keeps near the bottom, 

 and is most commonly taken in nets. The propriety of 

 ranking this fish with the Squali seems to me to be doubt- 

 ful : the terminal mouth and depressed body afford sufficient 

 distinctions for a new genus, which might be denominated 

 , Squatina, and in which the following species might find a 

 place. 



Lewis. — This fish, so named by fishermen, by whom it is not 

 unfrequently taken with a line, bears some resemblance to 

 the Monk, but is somewhat smaller; and as I have not 

 been able to assign it a Linnaean name, I subjoin a descrip- 

 tion : The head is large, flat, the jaws of equal length, 

 forming a wide mouth ; the upper jaw falls in somewhat at 

 the middle, so that at this part the lower jaw seems a little 

 the longest; both are armed with several rows of sharp 

 teeth ; the tongue is small. The head is joined to the body 

 by something which resembles a neck ; the body is flat so 

 far back as the ventral fins, beyond these it is round ; the 



pectoral 



