It should, also, be
especially observed that muscular contraction is accompanied by an
electrical discharge; and, as Dr. Radcliffe insists, "in the electrical
apparatus of the torpedo during rest, there would seem to be a charge in
every respect like that which is met with in muscle and nerve during the
rest, and the discharge of the torpedo, instead of being peculiar, may be
only another form of the discharge which attends upon the action of muscle
and motor nerve." Beyond this we cannot at present go in the way of
explanation; but as we know so little about the uses of these organs, and
as we know nothing about the habits and structure of the progenitors of the
existing electric fishes, it would be extremely bold to maintain that no
serviceable transitions are possible by which these organs might have been
gradually developed.
These organs appear at first to offer another and far more serious
difficulty; for they occur in about a dozen kinds of fish, of which several
are widely remote in their affinities. When the same organ is found in
several members of the same class, especially if in members having very
different habits of life, we may generally attribute its presence to
inheritance from a common ancestor; and its absence in some of the members
to loss through disuse or natural selection. So that, if the electric
organs had been inherited from some one ancient progenitor, we might have
expected that all electric fishes would have been specially related to each
other; but this is far from the case.
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