204 ELECTRIC FISHES. LECT. X. 



it coils itself so that its victim is enclosed in the concavity 

 formed by its body. 



I have myself recently made some experiments upon a 

 gymnotus, which had lived for several months in the palace 

 of the King at Naples ; and have verified all the facts ob- 

 served by Faraday. The only important and new result 

 which I obtained was, that the fish possessed the power of 

 discharging voluntarily either the whole or only a part of 

 its organ. Fresh researches, however, are necessary to 

 substantiate fully this fact. We know nothing of the other 

 electrical fishes ; and I can, therefore, only mention their 

 names to you. 



What does the organ of the electrical fishes consist of? 

 What electrical apparatus is analogous to this organ ? It is 

 very difficult to answer these questions satisfactorily. The 

 electric organ of the torpedo is composed of from 400 to 

 500 prismatic masses, comparable to grains of rice, placed 

 side by side, each of which is composed of superimposed 

 vesicles. From this general arrangement, the entire organ 

 resembles a honey-comb. Each of the component prisms 

 present a certain number of diaphragms, which divide it 

 perpendicularly to its axis, and which in fact are nothing 

 more than the aponeurotic walls of the neighbouring vesi- 

 cular masses. Nervous ramifications, consisting entirely of 

 primitive nerve fibres, are distributed over these walls or 

 diaphragms. Savi, Robin, and Wagner, have studied this 

 structure. 



The great resemblance, or, to speak more accurately, 

 the identity of structure of all these vesicles, leads us to 

 assume that they are the true elementary organ of the elec- 

 tric apparatus : the truth of this hypothesis is also demon- 

 strated by the identity of their composition ; for all are 

 filled with the same dense liquid, composed of about T 9 j of 

 water and iV of albumen, with a little common salt. Ex- 



