Electrical Fishes. 97 



No, the saddest aspect of the matter is this : that thousands 

 of human beings can be interested in a treatment of the sub- 

 ject which restricts itself to a recital o£ the practical application 

 — while no interest can be aroused in such a presentation of the 

 subject as makes it a part of true human knowledge. 



A. McGiLL. 

 August 19, 1896. 



ELECTRICAL FISHES. 



By Professor Edward E. Prince. 

 Dominion Commissioner of Fisheries, Ottawa. 



. Some recent researches have added much to our knowledge 

 of electrical phenomena in fishes. _ That certain fishes possess 

 electrical properties has been known from classical times, and 

 Oppian, with provertical poetic liberty, describes the shock pro- 

 duced by one of these creatures as passing along the angler's line 

 and rod into the fisherman's body : — 



" His arm of sense bereit, 

 Down drops the idle rod ; his prey is left, 

 Not less benumbed than if he felt the whole 

 Of frost's severest rage about the Arctic pole. 



Pliny ventured the opinion that these mysterious powers 

 were utilized in killing victims for food, and there is some 

 ground for that view. Fishes classed as electrical belong to very 

 widely separated orders and families but the total number of 

 species is small. 



Amongst the Sharks and Rays, the Torpedinidae and 

 two or three species of Skate, alone, are known as electrical. 

 Out of nine or ten thousand species of Teleosteans or Bony 

 Fishes, not more than a dozen possess these remarkable organs. 



