The Electric Eel (Gymnotus elect ricus) belongs to a different family of apodal fishes (Gymnotidoe). In it both caudal and dorsal fins are entirely awanting, and the anal fin is very long, forming a fringe from the throat to the extremity of the tail. It attains a length of 5 or 6 feet, and frequents the marshes of Brazil and the Guianas, where it is regarded with terror, owing to the formidable electrical apparatus with which it is provided, and which extends along each side of the lower portion of the tail. When this natural battery is discharged in a favourable position, it is sufficiently powerful to kill the largest animal ; and, according to Humboldt, it has been found necessary to change the line of certain roads, owing to the number of horses that were anniully killed in passing through the pools frequented by the gymnoti. These eels are eaten by the Indians, who, before attempting to capture them, seek to exhaust their electrical power by driving horses into the ponds. By repeated discharges upon these, they gradually expend this marvellous force ; after which, being defence less, they become timid, and approach the edge for shelter, when they fall an easy prey to the harpoon of the Indian. It is only after long rest and abundance of food, that this fish is able to resume the use of its subtle weapon.
EFFIGIES, Monumental.—In the course of the twelfth century the idea appears, for the first time, to have been carried into effect that the figure of a deceased personage should be represented by efligy upon his monu mental memorial. These earliest attempts at commemora tive portraiture were executed in low relief upon coffin-lids of stone or purbeck marble, some portions of the designs for the most part being executed by means of incised lines, cut upon the raised figure. Gradually, with the increased size and the greater architectural dignity of monumental structures, effigies attained to a high rank as works of art, so that before the close of the 13th century, very noble examples of figures of this order are found to have been executed in full relief ; and, about the same period, similar figures also began to be engraved, either upon monumental slabs of stone or marble, or upon plates of metal, which were affixed to the surfaces of slabs that were laid in the pavements of churches. Engraven plates of this class, known as "Brasses," continued in favour until the era of the Reformation, and in our own times their use has been revived. It seems probable that the introduction and the prevalence of flat engraven memorials, in place of com memorative effigies in relief, were due, in the first instance, to the inconvenience and obstruction resulting from increasing numbers of raised stones on the pavement of churches ; while the comparatively small cost of engraven plates, their high artistic capabilities, and their durability combined to secure for them the popularity they unques tionably enjoyed. It will be kept in remembrance that, if considerably less numerous than contemporary incised slabs and engraven brasses, effigies sculptured in relief, and with some exceptions in full relief, continued for centuries to constitute the most important features in more than a few mediaeval monuments. In the 13th century, it must be added, their origin being apparently derived from the en deavour to combine a monumental effigy with a monumental cross upon thesame sepulchral stone, parts only of the human figure sometimes were represented, whether in sculpture or by incised lines, as the head or bust, and occasionally also the feet ; in some of the early examples of this curious class the cross symbol is not introduced, and after a while half-length figures became common.
Except in very rare instances, that most important element which may be distinguished as genuine face-portraiture is not to be looked for, in even the finest sculptured effigies, earlier than about the middle of the 15th century. In works of the highest order of art, indeed, the memorials of personages of the most exalted rank, from an early period in their existence effigies may be considered occasionally to have been portraits properly so called ; and yet even in such works as these an approximately correct general resemblance but too frequently appears to have been all that was contemplated or desired. At the same time, from the first, in these monumental effigies we possess con temporary examples of vestments, costume,[1] armour, weapons, royal and knightly insignia, and other personal appointments and accessories, in all of which accurate fidelity has been certainly observed with scrupulous care and minute exactness. Thus, since the monument, >1 effigies of England are second to none in artistic merit, while they have been preserved in far greater numbers, and generally in better condition than in other countries, we may claim to possess in unbroken continuity an unrivalled series of original personal representations of the successive generations of our predecessors, very many of them being, in the most significant acceptation of that term, veritab o contemporaneous portraits.
antiquarian curiosity, and at no distant period either altogether disregarded or too often subjected to injurious indignity, the monumental effigies of England still await the formation of a just estimate of their true character and their consequent worth in their capacity as authorities for face-portraiture. In the original contract fcr the con struction of the monument at Warwick to Richard Beauchamp, the fifth earl, who died in the year 1439, it is provided that an effigy of the deceased noble should be executed in gilt bronze, with all possible care, by the most skilful and experienced artists of the time ; and the details of the armour and the ornaments of the figure are specified with minute particularity and precision. It is remarkable, however, that the effigy itself is described only in the general and decidedly indefinite terms " an image of a man armed." There is no provision that the efligy should even be " an image " of the earl ; and much less is there a single word said as to its being such a "counterfeit presentment " of the features and person of the living man, as the contemporaries of Shakespeare had learned to expect in what they would accept as true portraiture. Tho effigy, almost as perfect as when it left the sculptor s hands, still bears witness, as well to the conscientious care with which the conditions of the contract were fulfilled, as to the eminent ability of the artists employed. So complete is the representation of the armour, that this effigy might be considered actually to have been equipped in the earl s own favourite suit of the finest Milan steel. The cast of the figure also evidently was studied from what the earl had been when in life, and the countenance is sufficiently marked and endowed with the unmistakable attributes of personal character. Possibly such a resemblance may have been the highest aim in the image-making of the period, somewhat before the middle of the 15th century. Three-quarters of a century later, a decided step further in advance towards the requirement of fidelity in true portraiture is shewn to have been taken, when, in his will (1510 A.D.), Henry VII. spoke of the effigies of himself and of his late queen, Elizabeth of York, to be executed for their monument, as "an image of our figure and another of hers." The existing effigies in the Beauchamp chapel
and in Henry VII. s chapel, with the passages just quoted
- ↑ It is well-known that the costume of effigies, almost as a rule, represented what was actually wcrn by the remains of the person com memorated, when prepared for interment and when lying in state ; and, in like manner, the aspect of the lifeless countenance, even if not designedly reproduced by mediaeval " image " makers, may long have exercised a powerful influence upon, their ideas of consistent monumental oortraiture.
