in ichthyology, a genus belonging to the order of fishes abdominales. The head is naked; the mouth set round with hairy filaments; the branchiae have from 4 to 14 rays; the ray of the pectoral fins, or the first dorsal one, is prickly, and dentated backwards.—There are 21 species, most of them natives of the Indian and American seas. Mr Hasselquist mentions one called the claritas by Linnaeus, and scheilan by the Arabians. If it pricks one with the bone of the breast-fin, it is dangerous; and our author saw the cook of a Swedish merchant ship die of the poison communicated by the prick of one of these fish. See Electricity, no. 261.

SIMEON of Durham, the contemporary of William of Malmesbury, took great pains in collecting the monuments of our history, especially in the north of England, after they had been scattered by the Danes. From these he composed a history of the kings of England, from A.D. 616 to 1130; with some smaller historical pieces. Simeon both studied and taught the sciences, and particularly the mathematics at Oxford; and became precentor of the church at Durham, where he died, probably soon after the conclusion of his history, which was continued by John, prior of Hexham, to A.D. 1156.