LECTURE VIII. 75 



seas. We have accounts of an animal of this kind 

 taken on the coast of Barbadoes, which required 

 seven yoke of oxen to draw it along. 



But the most curious species of Ray is the 

 Torpedo, which is the Raja Torpedo of Linnaeus, 

 an inhabitant of the European seas, and some- 

 times taken on our own coasts, though much more 

 common about those of France and Italy. The 

 body of the Torpedo is of a rounded shape, and 

 of a dull reddish-brown colour, with four or five 

 large round dusky spots, and of a pale or white 

 colour beneath ; the tail is of moderate length, 

 and terminated by a slightly rounded fin. The 

 Torpedo possesses a similar electric or galvanic 

 power with the Gymnotus before described, and 

 has been celebrated both by ancients and moderns 

 for its wonderful faculty of causing a sudden numb- 

 ness or painful sensation in the limbs of those who 

 handle it. The particular organs forming its 

 electric or galvanic battery have been accurately 

 described by Mr. Hunter in the Philosophical 

 Transactions, and as the general history of the 

 animal is now so well known, I shall at present 

 content myself with saying, that the Torpedo 

 from the first moment of its birth begins to exer- 



