256 TLAGIOSTOMI. 



inches in'length ; portions of other fishes ; scales of mullet ; not less than 

 50 eyes of fishes, and a bundle of Zostera marina, about 4 inches long 

 and 3 broad. It was a female, and contained a large number of round 

 eggs of various dimensions, from ;]ths down to ^th of an inch in diameter. 

 Ovaries 9 inches in length. 



The stomach of another was filled with the remains of fishes and Cepha- 



Dr. Ball mentions the occurrence of the angel-fish at Dublin, and on 

 the Waterford coast. Smith records it in his History of Cork, and it is 

 said to have occurred on the coast of Kerry. — (See Cork Fauna, p. 24.) 



The Torpedo, Torjiedo nohiliana, Bonap., 



Has been, in a few instances, obtained off the East and South-East coasts. 



Smith, in his History of Waterford, notices one as " taken off the har- 

 bour of Dungarvan and brought in there," about the year 1740 : this was 

 the first specimen noticed in the British Seas. A page of the work (p. 271, 

 2nd edit.) is filled with remarks on the torpedo, which the author felt 

 assured the fish Avas, but he describes its tail as being " furnished with 

 teeth like a saw," which rather indicates the caudal weapon of some of the 

 sting-rays, trygon, &c. 



The following notes were contributed by me to the 5th vol. of the 

 Annals of Nat. Hist. : — 



" On a torpedo taken on the Irish coast. — In the last week of October, 1838, a 

 torpedo, taken on the Irish coast by a fisherman Mho supplies the Dublin market, 

 was brought to the metropolis, and when quite recent purchased by Dr. Jacob, 

 Professor of Anatomy, &c., to the Royal College of .Surgeons. When in Dublin, 

 some time afterwards, I embraced the opportunity of examining the specimen, 

 W'hich was at once afforded me with Dr. .laeob's usual kindness and liberality. 

 The fish, from the careful manner in Avhich it had been kept, was, with the ex- 

 ception of the electric organs (which had been removed), still perfect, and for 

 every purpose of description in as good a state as could be desired. My chief 

 object was to ascertain its species, as even in cmr latest works — those of Jenyns 

 and Yarrell — that of the torpedo of the British seas is considered to be undeter- 

 mined. Although the investigation was on the whole unsatisfactory, owing to 

 the confusion in which the species of torpedo are at present involved, the notes 

 made with reference to the works consulted on the subject may possibly bcAvorth 

 transcribing. 



" Of Gesner's figures none accord with the individual under consideration, and 

 if they be correctly dra^ii it differs in species from them. It does not agree 

 with either of the torpedos given bv Aldrovandus, nor with those of Johnston — 

 his appear to be copies from precedmg works. Willughby's figure ( T. maculosa) 

 is the same as that of Aldrovandus. With one taken on the coast of France, at 

 Rochelle, and figured by Walsh in the Philosophical Transactions for 1773, vol. 

 Ixiii. tab. 19, my specimen is evidently identical ; the only difference worthy of 

 note is, that the spiracles are represented as notched, which they are not in the 

 specimen, and this cannot be a sexual character, as Walsh's fish was a female as 

 well as the present individual.* In the Phil. Trans, for 1774 (p. 464) Mr. Walsh 

 records the occurrence of the torpedo on the southern coast of England, stating 

 that it had been procured at Torbay, Mount's Bay, and Brixham. This gentle- 

 man likewise mentions his having been informed at the village of Rins, near Dun- 

 garvan, County Waterford, (where he was aware that Smith, in his History of this 

 count}', recorded a torpedo as having^ been captured about thirty years before his 



* John Hunter likewise figures the spiracles notched in the largest engraving 

 of the fish that I have seen, and a female is represented. Tab. 20. It follows 

 Mr. Walsh's in Phil. Trans. 1773. 



