Volume 1

The history of British fishes / [Robert Hamilton].

Hamilton, Robert, M.D.

Date:: [1876]

Credit: The history of British fishes / [Robert Hamilton]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

62/392 page 56

$from tlie alternation of these different laminee an analogy is established with the common galvanic ]iilo; and that thus this animal can give and with- hold at pleasure electric shocks, as means of de- fence, and also as weapons wherewith to stun its prey. In the otherwise excellent representation which 31. Geoffroy supplied of this fish, in the 1st volume of the Annahs du JSIusee^ it .appears covered with sc.ales. This, howeA er, is quite contrary to the fact, and opposed to an important law in the gahnnic ]diysiology of those fishes which are possessed of electric.al powers. All of these, remarks 31. Valen- ciennes, which are as yet known, have neither scales nor spines upon their body. The Torpedo, G} mnotus, and this Silurus, have the skin smooth ; and even the Tetrodon eJecUdcus furnishes an addi- tional example. Although most of the genus Tetro- don have the surface actinally bristled, so that they ha\e received the popular n.ame of Sea-hedgehogs, yet a few are included AAdiich are destitute of osseous sjiines, and possessed of a smooth skin; and to this class the electric .animal belongs. The electrical powers of this fish hav^e not hither- to been the subject of .any accurate experiments. Ad.anson only remarked, tlnat it did not appc.ar to differ sensibly from the shock of the Leyden phial; .and the account of Richard Jobson is to the effect, that when using a net in the river G.ambi.a, they captured, .among other fishes, one like .an English bream, but broader and thicker, wliich,$

The history of British fishes / [Robert Hamilton].

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