PLATE LIIL 
Health, forbids its being sold in the markets at Venice, though on 
the coast of France it is sometimes sold and eaten. Mr. Walsh 
caused one of a large size that was caught at Brixham, on the south 
coast of England, to be dressed and brought to table, but some 
friends suffered a little by their curiosity in tasting it. The electric 
organs, the latter observes, which make up one half of the fish, are 
mucilaginous, and unwholesome, but the rest is palatable as any of 
the Ray tribe. Dr. Bloch remarks, with much propriety, that the 
new experiments which have been made in our days upon the prin- 
ciples of electricity, clearly show, that a commotion of the same 
nature as that occasioned by the shocks of the Torpedo, might be 
successfully employed for the relief of some disorders, to which the 
human frame is incident. Among the Abyssinians, it is customary to 
administer the Torpedo for the cure of the fever, by applying it suc- 
cessively to all the members of the person affected. This operation 
is attended with cruel torture, but as a remedy, is deemed in- 
fallible. The same custom prevails also among the Ethiopians. 
In point of colours of the upper surface of this fish, are observed 
to vary considerably, from a pale brown to a deep blackish purple. 
The five remarkable dusky spots, which are strongly characteristic 
of the mediterranean sort, is comparatively very pale in those found 
in the more northern parts of Europe, and in many are not at all 
perceivable. They feed on other fish, a surmullet, and a plaise, 
having been found by Mr. Walsh in the stomach of a Torpedo, on 
dissection. The generation of the Torpedo is described by Aris- 
totle *, and the accuracy of this writer has been confirmed, by the 
# Arist. Hist, anno lib. v. c. 5, 
