ELECTRIC ORGANS OF FISHES. 



353 



which they are situated, fig. 233, h. These membranes are about 

 half a line apart at their outer borders ; but, as they pass from 

 the skin towards their inner attachments, they approach one 



233 



■ ■■:: "''■ " ~"'~ '"-' : ; -:. 





Vertical transverse section, Gymnotiis, natural size. cexv. 



another. They are intersected transversely by more delicate 

 vertical plates, extending from the skin to the median aponeu- 

 rosis, and coextensive in length with the breadth of the septa 

 between which they are placed. Hunter counted about 240 of 

 these plates in a single inch of length of the horizontal mem- 

 brane. 1 He compares those stronger membranes to the aponeu- 

 rotic walls of the prisms of the Torpedo, and the inter- 

 secting delicate plates to the partitions of the prisms : and if 

 we admit the analogy of these plates, and of those of the Tor- 

 pedo, to the plates of the voltaic pile, we perceive that, in the 



1 LXXX. 



VOL. I. 



A A 



