THE TOUPEDO. 



Extraordinary toporific quality. 



it in Torbay, and sometimes of such a size as to 

 weigh eighty pounds. They are partial to sandy 

 bottoms, in about forty fathoms of water, where 

 they often bury themselves by flinging the sand 

 over them, by a quick flapping of all the extre- 

 mities. In Torbay they are generally taken like 

 other flat-fish, with the trawl-net; and instances 

 have occurred of their seizing a bait. They 

 bring forth their young in the autumn. 



This fish's benumbing or toporific quality is 

 one of the most potent and extraordinary facul- 

 ties in nature. The ignorant stranger might ima- 

 gine he is only handling a skate, when he is in- 

 stantly struck numb. 



Upon touching the torpedo with the finger, it 

 frequently, though not always, happens, that the 

 person feels an unusual pain and numbness, 

 which suddenly seizes the arm up to the elbow, 

 and sometimes to the very shoulder, or head. 

 The pain is of a very particular species, and not 

 to be described by any words ; yet Lorengini, 

 Berelli, Rhedi, and Rheaumur, who all felt it se- 

 verely, observe it to bear some resemblance to 

 that painful sensation felt in the arm upon strik- 

 ing the elbow violently against a hard body; 

 though Rheaumur assures us that this gives but 

 a very faint idea of it. 



Its chief force is at the instant it begins; it 

 lasts but a few moments, and then vanishes en- 

 tirely. If a man do not actually touch the tor- 

 pedo, how near soever he holds his hands, he 



