TORPEDO, 
121 
that if a living fish be placed in a vessel of sea-water, a stream 
of that water poured on the hand or foot will convey the 
influence. 
Pliny, whose intention it was to bring into a small and 
convenient compass the whole of the current knowledge of his 
age, several times mentions the properties of this fish; which, 
as commander of tlie Roman fleet on the coast of Italy, he 
must have seen; but the chief part of what he has handed 
down to us is copied from other writers. He says, it is to be 
classed among the cartilaginous fishes, and in its habits shews 
a consciousness of its peculiar powers ; although these powers do 
not exert an influence on its own body. During the winter 
it lies hid in some depression at the bottom of the sea, and 
at other times conceals itself in a soft and muddy place, where 
it awaits the approach of any fish, which it strikes with the 
shock when it is off its guard, and then immediately darts upon 
and seizes it. In addition to what others have said of the 
numbing influence passing to a distance through a rod or staff, 
and of inflicting deadness on the most vigorous arm, he adds, 
that it is able to rivet to the ground the feet of any one, 
however otherwise active in the race. He goes on to state, that 
the female produces fourscore young ones at a birth, at the 
(we suppose autumnal) eq^uinox; and from the manner in which 
he speaks of the eggs, it would appear that he believed the 
young to be produced alive: a circumstance in which later 
observation shews him to have been mistaken. It remained 
for Oppian to embody the several observations made by others 
in his poem on fish and fishing; a work in which we can 
discover the observer of nature, even when the facts related 
are in great part founded on the authority of more ancient 
writers. I will remark, however, that he mentions a circum- 
stance that is overlooked or misapprehended by his poetical 
translator; but which is important as shewing his knowledge 
of the fact, that the torporific power was seated in a particular 
part of its body; — 
“The Oranipfish, when the (hook’s dread) pain alarms, 
Exerts his conscious skill and powerful arms, 
Applies his loins, and bids the line receive 
The numbing force it is his will to give. 
The flowing influence its volume rears. 
Bolls up the slender length of slippery hairs, 
