VENOM, ELECTRICITY, LIGHT, AND SOUND 149 



Torpedo applied with alum on the sixteenth day of the moon" 

 as a remedy for superfluous hair ! 



The shock given by the Electric Eel [which, by the way, is 

 not an Eel at all, but a member of the group of Gymnotids 

 {Gymnotiformes), related to the Characins and Cyprinids] is a 

 powerful one, and in an individual of six or eight feet in length 

 probably exceeds in strength that given by any of the Torpedoes. 

 Numerous are the stories told by travellers of men and their 

 pack-beasts being knocked down through coming into contact 

 with an Electric Eel while fording a river. The Electric 

 Cat-fish (Fig. 6ob), growing to a length of about three feet, is 



Fig. 62. LUMINOUS FISHES. 



A. Grenadier or Rat-tail {Malacocephalus laevis), X I ; Bummalow (Harpodon 



nehereus), X \. 



sluggish in its habits and lurks in dark places. Its shock does 

 not seem to be so powerful as that given by the forms just 

 mentioned, but is of sufficient strength to cause considerable 

 inconvenience to anyone handhng the fish, and quite small 

 specimens, two or three inches long, are said to be capable of 

 giving shocks "like a succession of pricks. " This species is used 

 by the Arabs for food, and they refer to it as the Raad or 

 Thunder-fish. 



The production of light provides yet another example of 

 transformation, for the luminous or phosphorescent organs to 

 be described here owe their origin to the modification of certain 

 gland-cells in the skin. These organs are of varying size and 

 form, ranging from a simple local aggregation of gland-cells> 



