RAYS. 
315 
circular. The space between the pectorals and 
the head and gills, is occupied on each side by an 
apparatus capable of giving electric shocks of 
considerable force, though not equal in power to 
those of the Gymnotus. The organs consist of a 
number of cells exactly resembling the hexagonal 
cells of a honey-comb, subdivided by lateral 
membranes, and containing a transparent jelly- 
like fluid. In the magnificent physiological 
Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, there 
are several beautiful representations, most exqui- 
sitely modelled, of these organs in connexion with 
the surrounding parts. Two species of these 
fishes are found on the British coast, often called 
Cramp-fish, and Numb-fish, from the effect pro- 
duced on the nerves of any one who comes into 
contact with them. 
The object of so singular a power is but im- 
perfectly conjectured. The fish is voracious and 
carnivorous, and this endowment may enable it 
to disarm and subdue its prey, which otherwise 
might be too strong or too active to be over- 
powered. But Mr. Couch suggests another object, 
with high probability. He says One well- 
known effect of the electric shock is to deprive 
animals killed by it of their organic irritability, 
and consequently to render them more readily 
disposed to pass into a state of decomposition,^ 
in which condition the digestive powers more 
speedily and effectually act upon them. If any 
creature more than others might seem to require 
such a preparation of its food, it is the Cramp - 
* “ The bodies of animals killed by lightning do not become stiff, 
and decomposition goes on rapidly.” (YarrelTs Brit. Fishesj 
ii. 544.) 
