Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/329

Rh 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 exquisitely 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 produced on the nerves of any one who comes into contact with them.

The object of so singular a power is but imperfectly 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