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Shark and Company 



Greeks well knew that the best way to get rid of superfluous hair was to 

 apply the brains of the Numbfish, mixed with alum— on the sixteenth day 

 of the moon, of course. They also believed that the best way to assure an 

 easy delivery for a woman in labor was to put a Numbfish in the same 

 room with her. 



The fascination of the Electric ray has persisted through the years, 

 and only in relatively recent times has its electrical-generating ability 



This drawing shows a partially dissected Electric ray ( Torpedo ) which lays bare 

 one of the electric organs (e. o. ) with its nerve network. As many as 500,000 "electric 

 plates" are found in an organ. Each plate is connected to the main nerve supply with 

 a cluster of delicate nerve tendrils. The main nerve to which the organ connects 

 terminates in a special lobe of the Electric ray's brain. Rudimentary electric organs 

 have also been found in the tails of skates and rays. After Gegenbaur 



been understood. The electric organs consist of two groups of highly 

 specialized cells, one organ on each side of the disk-Uke body. These 

 organs consist of muscle tissue in which the ordinary electrical-generat- 

 ing ability, found in any muscle, is greatly increased. 



Each organ is made up of many columns, running vertically through 

 the body and arranged like large honeycombs. Each column, made up of 

 375 or more disks, is filled with a jelly-like substance. The small disks 

 produce the same effect as do the electrical plates in batteries, and, in 

 fact, resemble the original voltaic pile— disks of silver and zinc separated 

 by moistened cloth— which historically led to the development of the 



