THE TORPEDO. 263 



extends, having two dorsal fins, and one caudal fin on 

 the termination. The mouth, teeth, and eyes, are very 

 small, and the fish does not seem to be fitted for much 

 exertion of any kind. 



Its general habits are not much known, but its elec- 

 tric power has been mentioned from very remote 

 antiquity. The fact is mentioned by Aristotle, Pliny, 

 and Appian ; and the Arabic name is the " lightning 

 fish," which would tempt one to conclude, that, at some 

 period of their history, the Arabians must have known 

 more of the nature of thunder and lightning than the 

 inhabitants of Europe, down even to a time compara- 

 tively recent. 



The ancient allegation was, that the torpedo could 

 give a shock capable of numbing the hand and arm of 

 the fisherman ; and among that class of persons, the 

 fact appears to have been all along known, though it 

 it did not attract the attention of philosophers till 

 toward the close of the seventeenth century. Reaumur 

 described the phenomena with accuracy, but erred in 

 attributing them to muscular action. Mr. Walsh was 

 the first to investigate the nature of the numbing 

 power in this fish, and Dr. Hunter to examine and 

 describe the singular apparatus by which the shock is 

 given. 



That apparatus consists of organs which occupy the 

 surface of the sides, from the fore-part of the animal, 

 to the hind part of the thorax, reaching from the car- 

 tilages of the fins toward the centre of the fish. The 

 length of each organ is rather more than a fourth of 

 that of the animal, and they are thicker toward the 

 centre, and thinned off toward the edges. They are 



