ELECTRIC EEL. This fish ( Gym not us, or Electro phornq,c1crtricuR) inhabits the rivers of the basin of the Amazon and tfrinoco, wherever they are warm and sluggish. It is in shape like a thick, stout. blackish. scaleless eel. and may grow to be six feet long: hut it differs so much in structure from ordinary eels that it has been set apart as a separate family or other group by Cope, Gill. and other ichthyologists. It is abundant, and seems to have the general food and habits of an eel, hut little is known in regard to its generation or the use of its battery, except that it baldtnall• kills more fish than it can consume. The flesh is filled with bones. but is said to be palatable, and is not only eaten. hut is regarded by the native South Amerieans as having medicinal value.
ELEcrrtle C.vrrtsil. These shoek-giving catfish compose the subfamily Malapternrina.. of \Odell the best known is the raash (.1ftdopieraras arc h-feas) of the Nile. It grows to a length of four feet. with the ordinary rayed dorsal tin replaced by a fatty dorsal fin inst in front of the rounded tail. It is said to give a shock like that from a Leyden jar, which may be communicated by touching t he ere:1111re With a conduel or. Two other species are TuF, Tonermt. The elt.etrie rays, or torpedoes, constitute a family elosely allied to the true rays. They embrace about six genera and fifteen species of the warmer seas of the world. and two species which approach our southern shores. They have
rounded, disk-like bodies, with powerful tails, and may weigh So pounds: SW1111 close to the bottom. and are da•k-eolored above and light beneath, like other fishes of their class. The best species is Totp.do marmorat as Of south ern Europe, upon which Dr. Ounther, iehthyolagist of the British ,Insetiin, made the following observations: Ile found that the phenomena at ending the exercise of this extraordinary faculty closely resembled muscular act 'the power i, exhausted after some and it needs repose and nourishment to restore it. If the electric nerves are cut and divided from the brain, the cerebral action is interrupted, and no irritant to the body has any effect to excite electric dis enarge; but if their ends be irritated the dis charge takes place, just as a muscle is excited to contraction under similar eircumstanees. And, singularly enough, the application of strychnine causes simultaneously a tetanie state of the muscles and a rapid succession of the involuntary electric discharges. The strength of the dis charges depends entirely on the size, health, and energy of the fish. It seems to be "essential and to them for overpowering. stunning, or killing the creatures [fish of various kinds] on which they feed, while incidentally they use it as the means of defending themselves from their enemies."