42  LIVING  ELECTRIC  FISHES  AS  SHOCK  MACHINES. 
proved  that  the  shock  of  the  torpedo  had  been  used  as  a  remedy 
in  paralytic  and  neuralgic  affections  before  the  Christian  era.  A 
still  higher  antiquity  has  been  conjecturally  claimed  for  the 
electric  Silurus,  or  Malapterurus  of  the  Nile,  on  the  supposition 
that  its  Arabic  name,  raad,  signifies  thunder-fish,  and  implies  a 
very  ancient  recognition  of  the  identity  in  nature  of  the  shock- 
giving  power  and  the  lightning  force ;  but  the  best  Arabic 
scholars  have  pointed  out  that  the  words  for  thunder  (raad)  and 
for  the  electric  fish  (radd)  are  different,  and  that  the  latter 
signifies  the  "causer  of  trembling,"  or  "  convulser so  that 
there  are  no  grounds  for  imputing  to  the  ancient  Egyptians,  or 
even  to  the  Arabs,  the  identification  of  Silurus-power  with  the 
electric  force.  In  proof  of  the  generality  of  the  practice  of  em- 
ploying the  living  zoo-electric  machine  at  the  present  day,  the 
author  referred  to  the  remedial  application  of  the  torpedo  by  the 
Abyssinians,  to  that  of  the  gymnotus  by  the  South  American 
Indians,  and  to  that  of  the  recently-discovered  electric  fish 
(Malapterurus  Beninensis)  by  the  dwellers  on  the  old  Calabar 
River,  which  flows  into  the  Bight  of  Benin.  The  native  Calabar 
women  are  in  the  practice  of  keeping  one  or  more  of  the  fishes 
in  a  basin  of  water,  and  bathing  their  children  in  it  daily,  with 
a  view  to  strengthen  them  by  the  shocks  which  they  receive. 
These  shocks  are  certainly  powerful,  for  living  specimens  of  the 
Calabar  fish  are  at  present  in  Edinburgh,  and  a  single  one  gives 
a  shock  to  the  hand  reaching  to  the  elbow  or  even  to  the  shoulder. 
The  usages  referred  to  appear  to  have  prevailed  among  the 
nations  following  them  from  time  immemorial,  so  that  they  fur- 
nish proof  of  the  antiquity  as  well  as  of  the  generality  of  the 
practice  under  notice.  The  author  concluded  by  directing  the 
attention  of  naturalists  to  the  probability  of  additional  kinds  of 
electrical  fish  being  discovered,  and  to  the  importance  of  ascer- 
taining what  the  views  of  the  natives  familiar  with  them  are  in 
reference  to  the  source  of  their  power  and  to  their  therapeutic 
employment.  Sir  J.  Richardson  stated  that  there  were  not  less 
than  eleven  genera  of  fishes  known  that  had  the  power  of  giving 
electric  shocks.  There  was  one  peculiarity  in  all  these  fishes, 
and  that  was  the  absence  of  scales.  In  every  one  of  them  an 
apparatus  had  been  discovered,  which  consisted  of  a  series  of 
galvanic  cells  put  in  action  by  a  powerful  system  of  nerves.  He 
