PLATE LIH. 
contain a fluid. These partitions consist of a very thin membrane, 
considerably transparent. Their edges appear to be attached to one 
another, and the whole is attached by a fine cellular membrane, to 
the inside of the columns. They are not totally detached from one 
another ; and I have found them adhering at different places, by 
blood vessels passing from one to another. The number of par- 
titions contained in a column of one inch in length, of a Torpedo, 
which had been preserved in proof spirit, appeared, upon a careful 
examination, to be one hundred and fifty : and this number, in a 
given length of column, appears to be common to all sizes in the 
same state of humidity, for by drying they may be greatly altered ; 
whence it appears probable, that the increase in the length of a co- 
lumn, during the growth of the animal, does not enlarge the dis- 
tance between each partition in proportion to the growth ; but that 
new partitions are formed, and added to the extremity of the column 
from the fascia. The partitions are very vascular ; the arteries are 
branches from the veins of the gills, which convey the blood that 
has received the influence of respiration. They pass along with the 
nerves to the electric organ, and enter with them : then ramify, in 
every direction into innumerable small branches upon the sides of 
the columns, sending in from the circumference all around upon each 
partition small arteries, which ramify, and anastomose upon it ; and 
passing also from one partition to another, anastomose with the 
vessels of the adjacent partitions. The veins of the electric organ, 
pass out close to the nerves, and run between the gills, to the auricle 
of the heart. The nerves inserted into each electric organ, arise by 
three very large trunks, from the first of these in its passage out- 
wards, turns round a cartilage of the cranium, and sends a few 
branches to the first gill j and to the anterior part of the head, and 
then passes into the organ towards its anterior extremity. The 
vol. in. 
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