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The ELECTRIC ORGANS of FISHES. 
By Francis GotcH, M.A., F.R.S., 
PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LIVERPOOL. 
(ABSTRACT. ) 
PROFESSOR GoTCH prefaced his remarks with a brief 
historical retrospect indicating the extent to which the 
powers of electric fish were known to the ancients and the 
various explanations which were advanced to account for 
them. He then referred to the experiments of Walsh in 
1773 which first showed that the extraordinary effects 
produced by the Torpedo were in reality due to the pro- 
duction in a special organ of the animal of a powerful 
electrical discharge. The fish thus was shown to possess 
a structure which could at will be turned into a powerful 
electric battery. 
In order to study the mode of formation, structure and 
functional powers of this electrical organ, he directed the 
attention of the audience to four different fish : 
(1) Torpedo: a flat fish closely allied to the family of 
the Skates and Rays, often termed the electric Ray: 
inhabiting the sea in low latitudes. 
(2) Gymnotus or Electric Kel: inhabiting the branches 
of the River Orinoco in 8. America. 
(3) Malapterurus, one of the Siluride, known as the 
Thunder-fish: inhabiting the branches of the Nile, 
Congo, Senegal and other rivers of Africa. 
(4) Rava bates, &c., the common Skate. 
* Part of a Lecture delivered before the Biological Society, 13th 
May, 1892. 
