HAD 
lifed to be called. The keeper of thefe fidi in- 
forms me, that he catched them in Surinam river, 
a great way up, beyond where the falt-water 
reaches ; and they are a frefh-water fiih only. He 
fays that they are eaten, and by fome people ef- 
teemed a great delicacy. They live on fifli, 
worms, or any animal food, if it is cut fmall, fo 
that they can fwallow it. When fmall-lived fillies 
are thrown into the water, they firft give them a 
fhock, which kills or ftupifies them, that they 
may fwallow them eafily, and without any trouble. 
If one of thefe fmall fifhes, after it is fliocked, and 
to all appearance dead, be taken out of the veffel 
where the electrical fifli is^ and put into frefli wa- 
ter, it will foon revive again. If a larger fifh 
than they can fwallow be thrown into the water at 
a time that they are hungry, they give him fom.e 
fmart Ihocks, till he is apparently dead, and then 
try to fwallow or fuck him in ; but after feveral 
attempts, finding he is too large, they quit him. 
Upon the mod careful infpeftion of fuch fifli, I 
could never fee any mark of teeth, or the lead 
wound or fcratch on them. When the eleftrical 
fifh are hungry, they are pretty keen after their 
food; but they are foon fatisfied, not being able 
to contain much at a time. An eleftrical fifh of 
three feet and upwards in length cannot fvy^allow 
a finall fifli above two, or at moft three inches and 
a half long. Since I wrote the above defcription 
and remarks, I have had Mr. Bancroft's EiTay on 
the Natural Hiftory of Guiana put into my hands, 
in which I find an account of this animal; but as 
I think he has not been very particular in the de- 
fcription of it, I refolved ftill to fend you the above 
account, that you might judge for yourfdf. I ob- 
ferve, that his account or defcription and mirid 
differ in feveral things; and, amongft others, where 
he fays that thofe fifh Avcre u'lially about three 
feet in length ; but the one, of which I have fent 
a (light defcription, was three feet eight inches* 
This f iiall variation might indeed have happened 
without any error; but I am told, that fome of 
them have been feen in Surinam river upwards of 
twenty feet long, whofe ftroke or (hock proved in- 
fi:ant death to any perfon that unluckily received 
it.' 
In addition to Dr. Garden's defcription, we are 
enabled, by the curious difleftions of Mr. John 
Hunter, to declare, that the eleftrical qualities of 
this fifh depend on particular organs. There are 
two pair of thefe organs, a larger and fmallerj 
placed on each fide of the fifli, feparated from each 
other, and confcituting, perhaps, more than a third 
part of the whole animal. In the ftrufture of the 
organs, there are flat partitions, or fepta; and crofs 
divifions between them, by means of thin plates, 
or membranes; of which tranfverfe plates about 
two hundred and forty are contained in a fingle 
inch, which multiply die entire furface to a vaft 
extent. The nerves of this fifli, appropriated to 
the exercife of it's eleflrical pov/crs, and which 
arife particularly from the medulla fpinalis, whence 
they ifTue in pairs betv/een all the vertebra of the 
fpine, and fupply the organs, are confiderably 
larger than thofe which are bellowed on any other 
part for the purpofes of aftion and fenfation. For 
a more minute account of the eleilrical properties 
of this fifh, fee ToPvPEDO. 
GYRINUS. A name fometimes given to a 
fpecies of the mordella. 
HADDOCK; the Gadus 7^:glefinus of Lin- 
naeus. The generality of writers make the 
Haddock a fpecies of the afellus kind ; but, accord- 
ing to the new Artedian fyftem, it is of the genus 
of gadi. Salvian calls it the afellus major; and 
Turner and Willughby, the oros and afinus of 
the ancients. Charlton tells us, that this fifh was 
tlie caliaris, galeris, and galaxis, of Pliny; but 
this opinion does not feem to reft on fubflantial 
evidence. 
The Haddock feldom attains to any very con- 
fiderable fize, one of fourtecen pounds weight be- 
ing very unufual; and indeed it is generally ef- 
teemed moil proper for the table when it weighs 
only two or three pounds. The body is long and 
Oender; the head flopes down to the nofe; the 
fpace between the hind-part of the firft dorfal fin 
is ridged ; the chin is furniflied with a fmall beard ; 
on the back there are three fins refembling thofe 
of the common cod-fifh ; and on each fide beyond 
the gills there is a large black fpot. Superftition, 
always inclined to difcover or invent, alTigns this 
mark to the impreiTion St. Peter made with his 
finger and thumb when he took the tribute-money 
out of the mouth of this fpecies j which imprefTion 
has defcended to the whole race of Haddocks in 
confirmation of this miracle. The lateral line is 
black; the upper-part of the body is duflcy, or 
brown; the belly, and the lower part of the lides^ 
are filvery; the irides are alfo filvery; the pupil is 
large and black; and tlie tail is bifid. 
Haddocks begin to be in perfe6lion about the 
middle of November, and continue fo till the end 
of January; but, from that period till May, they 
become very flaccid, and out of feafon. In May 
they begin to recover, and continue gradually im- 
proving till they arrive at their greateft perfe6tion.- 
Fifhermen afTert that, during ftormy weather. 
Haddocks fink to the bottom of the fea, where 
they fhelter themfelves in the fand and ooze till 
the tempefts have fubfided ; after which they are 
frequently caught with mud on their backs. In 
the fummer feafon they fubfift on young herrings, 
and other fmall fifties; and, in winter, they feck af- 
ter the ftone-coated worms, a fpecies of the lerpula 
which fifhermen call Haddock-meat. 
Vaft flioals of Haddocks arrive periodically on 
the Yorkfliire coafts; and fo regular are they in 
their annual returns, that for two or three years 
fucceffively they have been obferved to appear on 
the 
