1. PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



The vertebral column of this Order is usually divided into 

 distinct segments, the centra are calcified, but do not consist 

 of true bone. Pahcospinax, from the Lower Lias, Lyme Regis, 

 is the first Elasmobranch with a well calcified centrum. 

 As a rule the Palaeozoic types are characterised by a 

 considerable development of the exo-skeleton, although there 

 are some, the Sharks for instance, which have no such bony 

 protection. The teeth of the modern Ray retain the primitive 

 type. They appear for the first time in the Cretaceous Beds of 

 Lewes, Sussex, and of the Lebanon, also in the Oligocene and 

 Miocene Beds of Germany. The Torpedo or Electric Ray is 

 remarkable for its large pectoral-fin, which is attached to the 

 head, where the electric organs are placed. The electric shock 

 is delivered voluntarily, either in self-defence, or for killing its 

 prey ; usually it lives at the bottom of the sea. They are not 

 all marine ; some live in inland fresh-water marshes. The 

 electric currents generated by these fish, exercise all the known 

 powers of electricity, rendering the needle magnetic, decomposing 

 chemical compounds, and emitting the electric spark. The body 

 is naked. Its first appearance was in the Tertiary Age. Torpedo 

 (Narcobatis) Egertoni, and T. gigantea occur in the Middle 

 Eocenes of Monte Bolca, near Verona. The Sting-Fishes 

 (Cyclobatis) differ from the Torpedo family in being furnished 

 with a series of spinous tubercles, and the rest of their bodies 

 and fins covered with minute prickles. They belong to the 

 Order Tygonida?. Three species are found fossil in the Upper 

 Lebanon. They have a wide distribution in the modern seas, the 

 majority inhabiting the tropical portions of the Indian Ocean and 

 the Atlantic. They preceded the Torpedoes in geological time, 

 but there is no evidence of their existence before the Eocene Age. 



Chimaridct. Regarded by some writers as a sub-order of the 

 Sharks, to which, although they have some resemblance externally, 

 in the shape of the body, in the organs of propagation, and in 

 the structure of the egg-capsules, yet they present such important 

 differences as to relegate them to a distinct Order. The skeleton is 

 entirely cartilaginous, and the vertebral column is only imperfectly 



