‘In the Torpedo and the Fishing-frog the breadth of the anterior part of the body is not so great as to render locomotion by fins impossible, but in consequence of it the upper pair [_pectorals_] are placed further back and the under pair [_ventrals_] are placed close to the head, while to compensate for this advancement they are reduced in size so as to be smaller than the upper ones. ‘In the Torpedo the two upper fins [pectorals] are placed in the tail, and the fish uses the broad expansion of its body to supply their place, each lateral half of its circumference serving the office of a fin.... The torpedo narcotizes the creatures that it wants to catch, overpowering them by the force of shock that is resident in its body, and feeds upon them; it also hides in the sand and mud, and catches all the creatures that swim in its way and come under its narcotizing influence. This phenomenon has been actually observed in operation.... The torpedo-fish is known to cause a numbness even in human beings. ‘The frog-fish has a set of filaments that project in front of its eyes; they are long and thin, like hairs, and are round at the tips; they lie on either side, and are used as baits.... The little creatures on which this fish feeds swim up to the filaments, taking them for bits of seaweed such as they feed upon. Accordingly, when the frog-fish stirs himself up a place where there is plenty of sand and mud and conceals himself therein, it raises the filaments, and when the little fish strike against them the frog-fish draws them in underneath into its mouth.... That the creatures get their living by this means is obvious from the fact that, whereas they are peculiarly inactive, they are often caught with mullets, the swiftest of fishes, in their interior. Furthermore, the frog-fish is usually thin when he is caught after losing the tips of his filaments.’[61] [61] The paragraphs concerning the fishing-frog and torpedo are made up of sentences rearranged from the _De partibus animalium_, iv. 13; 696ᵅ 26, and the _Historia animalium_, ix. 37; 620ᵇ 15. The modification of the musculature of the torpedo-fish for electric purposes and the fishing habits of the fishing-frog or _Lophius_ are now well known, but it was many centuries before naturalists had confirmed the observations of the father of biology.