119 



TORPEDO. 



The disk in shape approaches to the circular form, and is plump and 

 soft; the anterior border, unlike other Eays, formed of two slight 

 advances in front, with a small retraction between them. The caudal 

 portion short and stout, ending in a fin which has a lobe below and 

 above. The plump space between the head branchiae and pectoral 

 fins is occupied by the electrical apparatus; the nature of which has 

 rendered this genus of fishes famous. The surface is smooth j two 

 dorsal fins. 



TORPEDO. 



CRAMP RAY. TURPAENA. NUMBFISPl. ELECTRIC RAY. 



Wherever this fish has been found it could not fail to 

 attract attention, by the experience it compelled its observers 

 to obtain of the w^onderful faculty which it possesses of affecting 

 with numbness those who handle it — a circumstance which in 

 ancient times must have appeared among the most unaccountable, 

 as it still is among the most surprising occurrences of nature. 

 We find accordingly that the Torpedo and its properties are 

 mentioned by the earliest philosophers whose writings have 

 been preserved; and from them, or popular knowledge, it 

 obtained a name which shews that the nature of its influence 

 had been not obscurely felt. It was from the first called Narke, 

 and, says Oppian, — 



"Is rightly named from numbing pain;'' 



and how generally this knowledge of its powers was spread 

 abroad appears from a declaration of ^lian, B. 9, C. 14; who 

 tells us that he received the account of its properties from his 

 mother, whilst yet a child. 



In the year 1774, Sir John Pringle selected this as an 

 appropriate subject for an oration on the occasion of delivering 

 the Copley Medal to Mr. Walsh, in acknowledgment of that 



