6 THE PLAGIOSTOMIA. 



Raia rhinobatos Linn6, 1758. Walbaum, 1792, gives the genus under the 

 name Rhinobatus, refers to Klein, but does not name a type. 

 Narcacion. — Torpedo in early literature was a Latin vernacular name for 

 animals known to Aristotle as NdpKr). Pliny makes various mentions of the 

 Torpedo as a cartilaginous fish, see Lib. IX, C. 24, c. 42. Albertus Magnus, 

 in the edition of 1495, Lib. 24, f. 245, speaics of the Torpedo and its proper- 

 ties. Jovius, 1524, c. XXVIII, appUes the name to the five-spotted species 

 of the Mediterranean. Wotton, 1552, in the course of his article on Tor- 

 pedoes, f. 145, remarks "Sunt qui duo torpedinis genera tradunt: marinum 

 scilicet et fluviatile." Belon, 1553, describes and figures two of the marine 

 species. Salviani, 1554, f. 142, says "Omnes, qui de Torpedine loquuti 

 sunt, earn marinam solum fecerunt, uno deopto Athenaeo, qui fluviatilem 

 etiam, Nih scilicet accolam, eam esse asseverat." Rondelet, 1554, treats of 

 the Mediterranean species and cites Athenaeus and Strabo as authorities 

 for the existence of a Nile Torpedo. Gesner, 1558, figures several of the 

 Torpedoes. Aldrovandi, 1613, Pise, p. 415-423, discusses the Torpedoes 

 and gives two plates to the maculosa and the nonmaculosa. Cuba, 1536, 

 Hortus, Pise, lib. 3, c. 62, fol. 85, makes use of the name Narcos for the 

 Torpedoes. Klein, 1742, Hist. pise, miss., 3, p. 31, gave the generic 

 name Narcacion to the marine species of Artedi's, 1738, "raia tota laevis," 

 from Rondelet, 1554. The Schauplatz, 1777, 4, p. 726, brings Klein's 

 Narcacion among the binomials by referring for its type to the Raia torpedo 

 of Linn6, 1758, as also Walbaum, 1792, Art. Gen. Pise, p. 580, who has 

 but one species, Raia torpedo, in the genus. The two species in Raia 

 torpedo as it was left by Linn6 had been separated by Miiller, 1774, when he 

 figured the five-spotted R. torpedo without directly crediting it to Linn6. 

 At the hands of Risso, 1810, the second species received a name, Torpedo 

 marmorata. The electric rays were separated, under Torpedo from the 

 Raiae, the "eigentlyke Rochen," by Houttuyn, 1764, without mention of 

 type species. Valmont, 1768, also applied Torpedo to the proper group 

 without indicating a type. Forskael, 1775, was in error in describing the 

 fish now known as Malapterurus eleciricus Linn^, Lac^pede, as Raia torpedo 

 but in an observation at the end of his description he remarks that it may 

 be a new genus to which he indirectly applies the name Torpedo. Torpedo 

 of Dumeril, like that of Houttuyn had no type and, following Forskael's 

 Torpedo, has less reason for existence. Risso, 1810, apparently was the 

 first to supply the tj^pe for the genus Torpedo under that name. It does 



