ELECTRIC FISH 



There is every reason to think that it does. The living 

 battery is composed of elements that are certainly small 

 and weak, but it makes up for this by having an immense 

 number of them, and, added together, these minute 

 discharges produce a high voltage, the effects of which 

 are appreciable. The intense effects upon a human 

 being give us an idea of what can happen in the water, 

 when they are brought to bear upon the small creatures 

 there. 



But actually, when we observe torpedoes in a tank, 

 we find nothing of this. They lie flat and motionless 

 upon the bottom, or upright against the glass. Near 

 them, around them, even passing over and touching 

 them, we see all sorts of fish coming and going in every 

 direction without appearing in the least afraid of their 

 dangerous neighbours. There is no discharge of elec- 

 tricity. Nothing happens. The torpedo remains inert, 

 and the tank-dwellers go about their business in perfect 

 safety. 



It may be thought that this indifference comes from 

 the state of captivity and the lessening of vital activity 

 which results from it, and that in natural conditions the 

 torpedoes are less placid and, as their structure would 

 lead us to expect, kill their victims with the electric 

 shock and then devour them. But this, again, is not 

 in accordance with the facts. Their ordinary behaviour, 

 their mouths fitted with small pointed teeth, rather 

 incline us to assume that, in securing food, they act like 

 the skate. They snap up on the bottom the animals 

 upon which they feed, and need no electric shock to 

 strike down their prey. 



Occasionally, perhaps, the organ is useful for defence, 

 for escaping the attack of a more powerful enemy, but 

 there is no evidence that this role is effective and reg- 

 ularly used in the normal course of existence. 



The skate have an apparatus exactly similar, but 

 much smaller. It is differently situated, being not in 

 the body but in the base of the tail. They, and the 

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