The New Student's Reference Work/Torpedo (fish)

Torpe'do, the popular name for electrical fishes closely related to the skates and rays. They are capable of giving electrical shocks, and are also called cramp-fishes. There are 15 or 20 species inhabiting mainly, the warmer seas, but one species is found on the Atlantic coast from Cape Cod south. It has a broad, disk-shaped body with a stout tail and reaches a length of three to five feet. It is black above and whitish below. The electrical organs in all these fishes consist of two clusters of six-sided prisms, one on each side between the head and the broadly expanded pectoral fin. There are about 500 prisms in a single organ. The latter is richly provided with nerve-fibers, and the discharge is under the control of the fish.