496 FISHES. 



exerting its electric faculty. The torpedo often inhabits sandy 

 places, burying itself superficially, by flinging the sand over it, 

 by a quick flapping of all the extremities. It is in this situation 

 that it gives its most forcible shock, which is said to throw down 

 the astonished passenger that inadvertently treads on the animal. 



The torpedo, with respect to its general anatomy, does not mate- 

 rially differ from the rest of the ray tribe, except in its electric 

 organs ; which have been accurately described by Mr. Hunter, as 

 placed on each side of the cranium and gills, reaching from thence 

 to the semicircular of each great fin, extending to a considerable 

 distance longitudinally, and within these limits occupying the 

 whole space between the skin of the upper and of the under sur- 

 face. From whence it appears, that the electric organs of the 

 torpedo constitute a pair of galvanic batteries, disposed in the 

 form of perpendicular hexagonal columns. In the gymnotus eleC- 

 tricus, on the contrary, the galvanic battery is disposed length, 

 wise on the lower part of the animal. 



We are informed by the ingenious Dr. Ingenhouz, that on taking 

 lip some torpedos, about twenty miles from Leghorn, he observed 

 that on pressing gently with the thumbs on the upper side of the 

 two soft bodies on each side of the head (the electric organs), in 

 about the space of a minute or two, he felt a sudden trembling in 

 the thumbs, which extended no farther than the hands, and lasted 

 about two seconds, perfectly resembling the sensation produced by 

 a great number of very small electrical bottles, discharged in quick 

 succession through the hand. After some seconds the sensation 

 returned, and again at more distant intervals. Sometimes it was 

 so strong as almost to oblige the hand to let go the fish ; and at 

 other times was but weak ; and after the fish had given one strong 

 shock, it did not seem to lose the power of communicating one of 

 limilar strength ; and it was sometimes found, that when the 

 shocks followed one another in quick succession, the last were 

 stronger than the first. 



The celebrated Spallanzani informs us, that some few minutes 

 before the torpedo expires, the shocks which it communicates, 

 instead of being given at distant intervals, take place in quick sue. 

 cession, like the pulsations of the heart : they are weak indeed, 

 but perfectly perceptible to the hand when laid on the fish at this 

 juncture, and resemble very small electric shocks. In the space 



