256 
PLAGIOSTOMI. 
inches in length ; portions of other fishes ; scales of mullet ; not less than 
50 eyes of fishes, and a bundle of Zostera marina , about 4 inches long* 
and 3 broad. It was a female, and contained a large number of round 
eggs of various dimensions, from f ths down to ^th of an inch in diameter. 
Ovaries 9 inches in length. 
The stomach of another was filled with the remains of fishes and Cepha- 
lopoda. 
Dr. Ball mentions the occurrence of the angel-fish at Dublin, and on 
the Waterford coast. Smith records it in his History of Cork, and it is 
said to have occurred on the coast of Kerry. — (See Cork Fauna, p. 24.) 
The Torpedo, Torpedo nobiliana, Bonap., 
Has been, in a few instances, obtained off the East and South-East coasts. 
Smith, in his History of Waterford, notices one as “ taken off the har- 
bour of Dungarvan and brought in there,” about the year 1740 : this was 
the first specimen noticed in the British Seas. A page of the work (p. 271, 
2nd edit.) is filled with remarks on the torpedo, which the author felt 
assured the fish was, but he describes its tail as being “ furnished with 
teeth like a saw,” which rather indicates the caudal weapon of some of the 
sting-rays, trygon, &c. 
The following notes were contributed by me to the 5th vol. of the 
Annals of Nat. Hist. : — 
“ On a torpedo taken on the Irish coast. — In the last week of October, 1838, a 
torpedo, taken on the Irish coast by a fisherman who supplies the Dublin market, 
was brought to the metropolis, and when quite recent purchased by Dr. Jacob, 
Professor of Anatomy, &c., to the Royal College of Surgeons. When in Dublin, 
some time afterwards, I embraced the opportunity of examining the specimen, 
which was at once afforded me with Dr. Jacob’s usual kindness and liberality. 
The fish, from the careful manner in which it had been kept, was, with the ex- 
ception of the electric organs (which had been removed), still perfect, and for 
every purpose of description in as good a state as could be desired. My chief 
object was to ascertain its species, as even in our latest works — those of Jenyns 
and Yarrell — that of the torpedo of the British seas is considered to be undeter- 
mined. Although the investigation was on the whole unsatisfactory, owing to 
the confusion in which the species of torpedo are at present involved, the notes 
made with reference to the works consulted on the subject may possibly be worth 
transcribing. 
“ Of Gesner’s figures none accord with the individual under consideration, and 
if they be correctly drawn it differs in species from them. It does not agree 
with either of the torpedos given by Aldrovandus, nor with those of Johnston — ■ 
his appear to be copies from preceding works. Willughby’s figure ( T. maculosa') 
is the same as that of Aldrovandus. With one taken on the coast of France, at 
Rochelle, and figured by Walsh in the Philosophical Transactions for 1773, vol. 
lxiii. tab. 19, my specimen is evidently identical ; the only difference worthy of 
note is, that the spiracles are represented as notched, which they are not in the 
specimen, and this cannot be a sexual character, as Walsh’s fish was a female as 
well as the present individual.* In the Phil. Trans, for 1774 (p. 464) Mr. Walsh 
records the occurrence of the torpedo on the southern coast of England, stating 
that it had been procured at Torbay, Mount’s Bay, and Brixham. This gentle- 
man likewise mentions his having been informed at the village of Ring, near Dun- 
garvan, County Waterford, (where he was aware that Smith, in his History of this 
county, recorded a torpedo as having been captured about thirty years before his 
* John Hunter likewise figures the spiracles notched in the largest engraving 
of the fish that I have seen, and a female is represented. Tab. 20. It follows 
Mr. Walsh’s in Phil. Trans. 1773. 
