Torpedoy Gymnofus eJeBTiciis and S'durus eleBnciis. izy 



vvhich vary in each fpecles without producing any remark- 

 able mociitication in the rell of the organization. 



This, however, is a refuh to which our (tate of knowledge 

 in regard to thole electric organs hitherto obferved, does not 

 ieem to conduci; for, if we adopt the opinion of moft ana- 

 tomifts, it will be found that the electric organ in the tor- 

 pedo is verv extenfive, exceedingly complex, and particularly 

 remarkable in this refpeft, thai nothing analogous to it has 

 ever been obferved. The Italian fchool, at the head of which 

 were Redi and his pupil Lorenzini, for a long time confi- 

 dered the numerous lubes of which that organ is formed as 

 fo many peculiar fmall niufcles, inufcuU falcati ; and this 

 opinion was generally adopted till the late Jcjhn Hunter pub- 

 liflied his excellent Anatoniical Defcription of the Torpedo. 



During my travels 1 have alfo had an opportunity of feeirxr 

 torpedoes, and 1 loon ditiinguillied tlie elertric batteries whh 

 which thev are abundantlv furniHied. As it was by touch- 

 ing thefe kinds of apparatus that 1 experienced the (Irongeli: 

 ihocks, and as the other rays exhibited nothing of the laiae 

 kind, I entertaijied no doubt that I had before mv eves thofe 

 organs by means of which the torpedo renders itfelf (b for- 

 midable in the bolom of the water, and can at picaiure ftrike 

 with numbnefs thofe animals which it wiflies to make its 

 prey. But at that time I was ignorant whether others before 

 me had examined this organization ; and, in that cafe, what 

 addition to the obfervations already made it would be uecef- 

 fary for me to make. Being fluit up in Alexandria during 

 the lime of the fiege, and deprived of the ufe of my library, 

 1 confoled mvielf for not being immediately able to clear up 

 , my doubts, bv entertaining a hope that thefe organs were not 

 known, at lealt in regard to their relation with general phy- 

 fiology. To obtain that knowledge I endeavoured to liud 

 fomething analoeous in the other rays, being perfuaded tliat 

 it was not fo nuich the prelcnce of this organ, as a <iifpu- 

 lition peculiar to it, that irave the torpedoes alone of all tlie 

 rays tlie aftonilhing faculty of fidminating, as we may fav; the 

 fmall inhabitants of the fea. Thole who liave compared only 

 a few animals mult know tliat few new organs are found 

 among tlicm, and particularly in fpecles which refemble 

 each other fo nuich as the rays. It was natural tlierctore to 

 believe, tliat the tubes containin<» a gelatinous fubiiance in 

 the torpedo exKlcd in a (late of concealment in the other 

 rays ; and it will here be fcen that I indeed found in the latter- 

 an analoeous orgmizallon, with ditlcrenccs to which we mull 

 refer the djiVetent modes of exillence and adlion of each 

 fpecles, 



Rays, 



