RAYS. 315 



circular. The space between the pectorals and 

 the head and gills, is occupied on each side by an 

 apparatus capable of giving electric shocks of 

 considerable force, though not equal in power to 

 those of the Gymnotus. The organs consist of a 

 number of cells exactly resembling the hexagonal 

 cells of a honey-comb, subdivided by lateral 

 membranes, and containing a transparent jelly- 

 like fluid. In the magnificent physiological 

 Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, there 

 are several beautiful representations, most exqui- 

 sitely modelled, of these organs in connexion with 

 the surrounding parts. Two species of these 

 fishes are found on the British coast, often called 

 Cramp-fish, and Numb-fish, from the effect pro- 

 duced on the nerves of any one who comes into 

 contact with them. 



The object of so singular a power is but im- 

 perfectly conjectured. The fish is voracious and 

 carnivorous, and this endowment may enable it 

 to disarm and subdue its prey, which otherwise 

 might be too strong or too active to be over- 

 powered. But Mr. Couch suggests another object, 

 with high probability. He says ; — " One well- 

 known effect of the electric shock is to deprive 

 animals killed by it of their organic irritability, 

 and consequently to render them more readily 

 disposed to pass into a state of decomposition,* 

 in which condition the digestive powers more 

 speedily and effectually act upon th^m. If any 

 creature more than others might seem to require 

 such a preparation of its food, it is the Cramp- 



* " The bodies of animals killed by lightning do not become stiff, 

 and decomposition goes on rapidly." (Yarrell's Brit. Fishes, 

 ii. 544.) 



