Fishes . y may be so carried. It is further suggestedthat the custom of eating the flesh of fishes raw almost luii-versal in Japan, Hawaii, and other regions may be responsiblefor the spread of certain contagious diseases, in which the fishacts as an intermediate host, much as certain mosquitoes spreadthe germs of malaria and yellow fever. Electric Fishes.—Several species of fishes possess the powerto inflict electric shocks not imlike those of the Leyden is useful in stunning their prey and especially in confound-ing their enemies. In most cases these electric organs areevidently dev
Fishes . y may be so carried. It is further suggestedthat the custom of eating the flesh of fishes raw almost luii-versal in Japan, Hawaii, and other regions may be responsiblefor the spread of certain contagious diseases, in which the fishacts as an intermediate host, much as certain mosquitoes spreadthe germs of malaria and yellow fever. Electric Fishes.—Several species of fishes possess the powerto inflict electric shocks not imlike those of the Leyden is useful in stunning their prey and especially in confound-ing their enemies. In most cases these electric organs areevidently developed from muscular substance. Their action,which is largely voluntary, is in its nature like muscular power is soon exhausted and must be restored by rest andfood. The effects of artificial stimulation and of poisons areparallel with the effect of similar agents on muscles. In the electric rays or torpedos {Narcobatida) the electricorgans are large honeycomb-like structures, vertical hexag-. Fiii. 43—Electric Catfish, Torpedo cleclriciis (Gmelin). Congo River.(After onal prisms, upwards of 400 of them, at the base of the pec-toral fins. Each prism is filled with a clear trembling jelly-likesubstance. These fishes give a shock which is communicablethrough a metallic conductor, as an iron spear or the handle ofa knife. It produces a peculiar and disagreeable sensation notat all dangerous. It is said that this living battery shows allthe known qualities of magnetism, rendering the needle mag-netic, decomposing chemical compounds, etc. In the Nile isan electric catfish {Torpedo electricus) having similar electric organ extends over the whole body, being thickestbelow. It consists of rhomboidal cells of a firm gelatinoussubstance. The electric eel {Electrophortis electricus), the most powerful Adaptations of Fishes 59 of electric fishes, is not an eel, but allied rather to the sucker orcarp. It is, however, eel-like in form and lives in rivers
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