119 
TOEPEDO. 
The disk in shape approaches to the circular form, and is plump and 
soft; the anterior border, unlike other Eays, formed of two slight 
advances in front, with a small retraction between them. The caudal 
portion short and stout, ending in a fin which has a lobe below and 
above. The plump space between the head branchi® and pectoral 
fins is occupied by the electrical apparatus; the nature of which has 
rendered this genus of fishes famous. The surface is smooth; two 
dorsal fins. 
TORPEDO. 
CRAMP RAY. TURPAENA. NUMBFISH. P,LECTRIO RAY. 
Wherever this fish has been found it could not fail to 
attract attention, hy the experience it compelled its observers 
to obtain of the wonderful faculty which it possesses of affecting 
with numbness those who handle it — a circumstance which in 
ancient times must have appeared among the most unaccountable, 
as it still is among the most surprising occurrences of nature. 
We find accordingly that the Torpedo and its properties are 
mentioned by the earliest philosophers whose writings have 
been preserved; and from them, or popular knowledge, it 
obtained a name which shews that the nature of its influence 
had been not obscurely felt. It was from the first called Narke, 
and, says Oppian, — ■ 
“Is rightly named fi-om numbing pain;' 
and how generally this knowledge of its powers was spread 
abroad appears from a declaration of .®lian, B. 9, C. 14; who 
tells us that he received the account of its properties from his 
mother, whilst yet a child. 
In the year 1774, Sir John Pringle selected this as an 
appropriate subject for an oration on the occasion of delivering 
the Copley Medal to Mr. Walsh, in acknowledgment of that 
