412 



RAIID.E. 



has already appeared so often in print elsewhere. Tlie situa- 

 tion of the apparatus or structure from which these species 

 derive their extraordinary power is indicated by the two ele- 

 vations, one of which is placed on each outside of the eyes 

 and temporal orifices, and extending to the lateral external 

 rounded edges. The apparatus occupies the whole of the 

 space between the upper and under surface of the body, and 

 is composed, as shown by the figures of Walsh and Pennant, 

 of a great number of tubes arranged perpendicular to the 

 plane of the upper and under surfaces, which when exposed 

 by a transverse section have very much the appearance of a 

 portion of honeycomb. The tubes contain a mucous secre- 

 tion, and the structure is largely provided with nerves deriv- 

 ed from the eighth pair. It is said that when the shock is 

 given, the convex part of the upper sui-face is gradually de- 

 pressed, the sensation is then felt, and the convexity sud- 

 denly returns. 



The whole use of the electrical apparatus and power to 

 the fish can only be conjectured. That it serves as a means 

 of defence, is very probable ; that it also enables a slow, inact- 

 ive fish to arrest and obtain as food some of the more active 

 inhabitants of the deep, is also probable. Mr. Couch thinks 

 other powers may be derived from it, and his opinion is thus 

 expressed : — " 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 di- 

 gestive powers more speedily and effectually act upon them. 

 If any creature more than others might seem to require such 

 a preparation of its food, it is the Cramp- Ray, the whole 

 canal of whose intestine is not more than half as long as the 

 stomach ." 



* Tlie bodies of animals killed by lightning do not become stiff. 



