74 



Further Investigations on the Function of the 

 Electrical Organ of the Skate. 



By 



Prof. Burdon Sanderson, IVI.D., F.R.S., and F. Ootch, M.A. 



During tlie month of September^ 1888^ we availed ourselves of the 

 facilities afforded by the Laboratory for the purpose of continuing 

 the investigations began by us the year before, of the function of the 

 electrical organ of the skate. In the record of the work done by 

 us in 1887 at St. Andrews, published in the Journal of Physiology, 

 vol. ix, p. 137, we indicated several new lines of investigation 

 which we hoped to pursue if the opportunity oifered. Two of 

 these indications we have now been able to fulfil satisfactorily, 

 namely, those relating to the electromotive force of the shock, and 

 to the way in which the function of the electric organ is controlled 

 and influenced by the central nervous system. In the first of these 

 inquiries, we used apparatus which was brought from the Oxford 

 Physiological Laboratory, and temporarily fitted up in the room at 

 Plymouth, which is set apart for physiological researches, and which 

 we found well adapted for this purpose. For the second, a large 

 number of experiments and consequently a considerable number of 

 fish were requisite. Forty skates of various species {Raia Batia, 

 H. clavata, B. Tnicrocellata, and R. raaculata) were supplied to us and 

 used in our researches, of which the result will shortly be ready for 

 publication. 



We desire to express in the strongest terms our appreciation of 

 the advantages afforded by the Laboratory for physiological re- 

 searches. We would also record our personal obligation to the 

 Director for his uniform courtesy and untiring zeal in obtaining 

 for us, in spite of considerable difficulties, the material required for 

 our work. 



