SKATE. 459 



The electric properties of this enchantress of the sea 

 suggested to ancient practitioners to try its efficacy in the 

 cure of headache and painful nervous affections, by ap- 

 plying it epidermically;* and Dr. Galen, who seems to 

 have been a strong homoeopathist, advises the numb-fish 

 (which he erroneously supposed to retain some electrical 

 virtue after death and stewing) as a dish to paralytic pa- 

 tients, with a view to cure their numbness ; no doubt on 

 the ' similia similibus' principle. The electric apparatus 

 is concisely described by Cuvier: it seems, by his ac- 

 count, to consist of a series of honeycomb cells filled with 

 mucus, abundantly supplied with nerves from the eighth 

 pair, situated between the gills and the head of the fish. 

 ' L'espace entre les pectorales et la tete et les branchies, 

 est rempli de chaque cote par un appareil extraordraaire, 

 forme de petits tubes membraneux serres les uns contre 

 les autres, comme des rayons d'abeUles; subdivises par 

 des diaphragmes horizontaux, en petites ceUides, pleines 

 de mucosite, animes par des nerfs abondants qui viennent 

 de la huitieme paire.' 



So much for the offensive apparatus of some particular 

 skates. Before dismissing the family, however, we have 

 a few words to say concerning the uses made by man of 

 their defensive armour, or hide. These, as we have al- 

 ready noticed, are both hard and rough. The uneven 

 surface, says Pliny, fits them admirably for the purposes of 

 polishing ivory and wood, and even better than steel itself; 

 nor, since his day, has any fitter substitute superseded 

 their employment : the coarser-grained hides are exten- 

 sively used abroad to cover trunks, the Turks make sword 



* The Abyssinians employ it in a similar mamier in their treat- 

 ment of fever. The patient is first strapped to a table, and the 

 numb-fish then appUed successively over every organ of the body : 

 the operation is reported to be both very painful and very suc- 

 cessM. 



X 2 



