184 MARVELS OP THE ANIMAL WORLD 



' cure ' being sometimes effected by placing a child 

 in a bath full of water into which one or more of 

 the fish are introduced ; at other times by put- 

 ting a fish into a shallow bowl of water so that 

 the invalid can touch the creature and thus re- 

 ceive the electric current into his system ; while 

 another method adopted, somewhat suggestive 

 of ' faith-healing,' is to make the patient 

 drink some water in which the fish have been 

 kept. 



Of the several varieties of the electric rays or 

 electric torpedoes, that known as the marbled 

 electric-ray, cramp-fish, or numb-fish (Torpedo 

 marmorata) is of special interest inasmuch as it is 

 frequently to be met with off the British coasts, 

 especially in the English Channel. Fully -grown 

 specimens may measure as much as two feet six 

 inches across, and attain to a length of over four 

 feet, inclusive of the tail. The electric organs are 

 large and oval masses situated on either side of 

 the head, the upper surface of which is positive, 

 while the lower surface is negative. The fish can 

 give a shock sufficiently powerful to disable a man, 

 but in order that the current may be transmitted 

 to a victim it is necessary that a circuit be formed 

 by making a contact with two different parts of 

 its body. 



An amusing story is related of an old Brighton 

 fisherman who exhibited a live torpedo, and, 

 proclaiming it to be the heaviest fish in the world, 

 invited his audience to lift it out of the tank of 

 water in which it was placed, a halfpenny being 



