C iso 3 
VI. Some observations and experiments made on the Torpedo of 
the Cape of Good Hope in the year 1812. By John T. Todd, 
late surgeon of His Majesty’s ship Lion . Communicated by 
Sir Everard Home, Bart. V.P.R . S. 
Read February 15, 181b. 
Wh..L 5 T the Lion was stationed at the Cape of Good 
Hope, the seine, as is the custom throughout the navy, was 
frequently employed in procuring fish for the use of the ship's 
company, and besides the more edible kinds, many of the 
Torpedo were caught. In this manner the opportunity was 
afforded me of making the following observations, some of 
the imperfections of which I must be allowed to attribute to 
the “ manus nuda” of my situation. The fish were generally 
caught early in the morning, and examined as soon after as 
possible. When this could not be done, they were placed in 
buckets of sea-water, where they sometimes remained alive 
for three, and in one instance for five days. 
The torpedo is seldom met with to the eastward of the 
Cape of Good Hope. Hence, whilst I rarely failed in pro- 
curing them in Table Bay, I never but once succeeded in 
doing so in Simon's Bay, although the opportunities were the 
same in both places. It was never caught but by the seine, 
although the hook and line, with bait of every variety, were 
as often made use of exactly in the same situations. It differs 
in no respect, as far as I have been able to observe, from the 
same fish of the northern hemisphere, except that it was never 
