90 ELECTRIC RAY, Class iV. 



Then to the fifher's hand as fwift repairs : 

 Amaz'd he Hands ; his arm's of fenfe bereft, 

 Down drops the idle rod ; his prey is left : 

 Not lefs benumb'd, than if he had felt the whole 

 Of froft's fevereft rage beneath the ar6iic pole. 



But great as its powers are when the fifh is in 

 vigor, they arc impaired as it declines in flrength, 

 and totally ceafe when it expires. They impart 

 no noxious qualities to it as a food, being com- 

 monly eaten by the French^ who find them more 

 frequently on their coafts than we do on ours. 



Galen affirms, that the meat of the torpedo is of 

 fervice to epileptic patients : and that the fhock of 

 the living fifh applied to the head is efficacious 

 in removing any pains in that part. 



We may mention a double uie in this ftrange 

 power the torpedo is endued with \ the one, when 

 it is exerted as a means of defence againft vora- 

 cious fifh, who are at a touch deprived of all poffi- 

 bility of feizing their prey. 



The other is well explained by Tliny^ who tells 

 us, it attains by the fame powers its end in refpe6t 

 to thofe fifh it wifhes to enfnare. Nonjit torpedo 

 'virii fuam^ ipfa non torpens -, merfaque in limo fe oc- 

 cultat pifcium qui fecuri fupernatantes obtorpuere^ 

 corripiens *. 



* '-' The torpedo is well acquainted with its own powers, 

 ^' though itfelf never afreded by them. It conceals itfelf in 

 '* the mud, and benumbing the fiih that are carelefsly fwim- 

 f^ ming about, makes a ready prey of themt" 



But 



