SKATE. 455 



ils I'avaient touche en dessus : aussi le voyait-on aussit6t 

 remonter vers la surface de la raev, et les deux faction- 

 naires reprenaient leur poste^ chacun sur leur come.' 



The Narke. 



KepKiSes eii7r€<j)ia(Ti napa TrKevpats S<aTepdev 

 ap.^lhvpx)C tS)v ct rts iiriylrava-eie 7re\dcr(rast 

 avTiKa oi /icXeoiv aOevos c(r)3eo"ei/, ev de ol aifia 

 TTTjyj/VTatf oi/S* ert yvla (pepecv dvvar, aWd ol dX/c^ 

 ^Ka p,apaivoji€voio irapierat a(jipovi NapKj. — 0pp. lib. ii. 



Besides those Sicarian skate of which mention has 

 just been made, there is one of much smaller dimensions 

 but of far more marvellous powers^ whichj long before , 

 Leyden phials were invented, or the principles of elec- 

 tricity understood, had pressed this redoubtable agent 

 into its service, and was wont to give practical lessons ia 

 the science to all who did not object to the ' charge.' 

 The peculiar powers of this fish are cursorily alluded to 

 or commemorated at length by a whole host of ancient 

 writers: 



Qms non edomitam mirse Torpedinis artem 

 Audit et emeritas signatas nomine vires P 



asks Claudian ; Plato compares Socrates to a narke, from 

 that sage's well-known capabilities of electrifying his au- 

 ditory ; and its achievements have been amply detailed by 

 Aristotle, Cicero, Plutarch, PHny, Oppian, jUlian, Athe- 

 nseus, and Galen. There are, as we have seen, two or three 

 other fish possessed of like galvanic properties ; but these 

 being exotic, did not come under the observation of the 

 ancients, so that the thrilling interest they took in the 

 narke was undivided with any competitor. What gave 

 this fish its singular powers was for a long time a matter 

 of the vaguest conjecture only. Galen, in his ' Treatise 

 on Respiration,' accounts for it, as the candidate for the 

 medical diploma in Moliere's ' Medecin malgre lui' ac- 

 counts for the stupefying effects of opium, who, being 



