ELECTRICAL FISH.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VI, Issue 33, 16 August 1890, Page 2

ELECTRICAL FISH.

SOME years ago a young man, with all the confidence of youth and in all the glory of his first knickerbockers, found himself in a small village on the New England coast, and, liking the location, determined to spend the season there, lhe morning following his arrival he ran down to the beach, where he found a crowd of red-shirted men gathered around a fiat fish about three feet in length. * We’re trying to get some one to heft it,’ said an old sea-dog, in answer to a question. ‘ Lift it ! Why a child could do that,’ remarked the young man from the city. P raps he could, replied the fisherman, ‘but if you kin from here to the dory over yonder you can earn ‘You re a fine lot of men,’said the city youth, with a laugh ; ‘ can t lift a fish of that size ! Why, I’ll wager the same amount that I can throw it that far.’ ” The fishermen were very anxious to take the wager, and finally the voung man approached, thrust his fingers into the eyes of the fish, and if it had been any other fish we might have said prepared to throw, but as it was the moment bis hands touched the fish a strange look of surprise came °. v ® r ,. 18 an< l those near by might have seen a certain rigidity of the muscles. He retained the same position for several moments, then, with many a grimace, asked to be relieved, and amid roars of laughter the fish was pulled from his hands. When the young man had recovered his equanimity he confessed that it was the heaviest fish he had ever attempted to lift. The fish was the ray, known popularly as the torpedo (torpedo marmoratus), and one of the most powerful of the marine electricians. It is said that the physicians of Cleopatra, Deoscorides, used these fishes in medicine. In examining the torpedo the electrical apparatus is very noticeable, being made up of two large, flat bodies lying on each side of the head. The organs are composed of numerous prisms placed vertically, each of which is subdivided by delicate septa, forming small cells, which contain a clear tremulous, jelly-like substance. In a specimen torpedo marmoratus one may count nearly 500 of these prisms. It has been found that the upper side of the fish is negative and the lower positive, and that the power is entirely at the will of the fish or under its control. Some curious experiments have been made ; thus the scientist Marez applied a telephone to the fish, and at every ordinary shock given he distinctly heard a click. When the fish was greatly excited a loud groan was heard, which sounded like ‘ mi,’ and the discharge was prolonged four or five seconds. The electrical discharge of this fish is not of sufficient power to kill a man unless he was in an extremely enfeebled condition, but that it is fatal to other fishes has been noticed on many occasions. Moreau, a French observer, noticed turbot fall upon a torpedo in a fishing-boat, and the result was almost instantaneously fatal. They leaped high in air upon receiving the shock, and fell back dead and rigid, and remained for some time bent in a curve. In appearance the torpedo is a flat fish, with a rounded head and short, thick tail.