Electrical Fishes. ioi 



the tail. The thick lateral muscles present no unusual features 

 and the electro-motive property is purely superficial, being con- 

 fined to a glandular layer in the skin and best developed in the 

 caudal region. Morinyrus, it may be added, is allied to the 

 herring and pike families, and belongs to the same order as 

 Gymnarchus niloticus which exhibits like Aforviyrus, rather feeble 

 electric powers. 



Some researches recently conducted in Scotland by Dr. E. 

 Waymouth Reid have yielded the remarkable discovery that a 

 series of scattered cutaneous glands in the common eel, Anguilla, 

 constitutes an electric organ of great interest. Eel-skin has long 

 been an old wives' remedy for sprains and rheumatic affections, 

 and carefully devised experiments have quite recently shown 

 how an electric discharge (the electro-mctive force of the tissue's 

 " current of rest " ) results from the activity of the gland cells in 

 the integument by which the body of the eel is enveloped. We 

 have in this remarkable discovery another illustration of the fact 

 that the commonest of common objects may yield scientific re- 

 sults of rare inteiest and profound importance. The French- 

 Canadian peasant who wrapped around his sprained wrist a 

 piece of eel-skin had little notion that the dried tissue of the fish 

 really possessed some of the most marvellous and mysterious 

 properties exhibited by the finny tribes. 



That activity in the skin-glands of the eel is associated 

 with an electric discharge of appreciable power is a fact which 

 considerably enlarges our ideas as to the nature of electric 

 organs. In the electric organs of the Torpedo, the Skate and 

 Gyuinotiis there is full evidence that we have examples of trans- 

 formed muscular tissue. The organs may differ in situation, 

 arrangement and general anatomical features, but they have this 

 in common that they have a direct nerve supply from the central 

 spinal system and are under the immediate control of the 

 animal. We know that in many lowly animals, tissues are found 

 which are neither muscle nor nerve, but a union of both. The 

 neuro-muscle cells of the jelly fishes (Medusae) are an example. 

 These cells are so primitive in structure and function that they 



