ELECTRIC FISH 



electricity at a high voltage, is surrounded by water, 

 which is a good conductor, and is thus charged with 

 electricity at high tension. The fish which come with- 

 in its sphere of influence are electrocuted even though 

 they may not touch the eel, and indeed may be some 

 distance away; the most powerful discharges emanating 

 from the front, which is the positive pole. The move- 

 ments and manoeuvrings of the pursuing eel add to 

 this effectiveness, sometimes bringing the head closer 

 to the tail, and thus diminishing the distance between 



Fig. 32. — Lines of electric discharge in the Electric Eel. 



the two poles, and making the discharge correspondingly 

 stronger. 



When batteries with metallic plates are in action, they 

 give off bubbles of gas, oxygen and hydrogen, produced 

 by the decomposition of the water which surrounds the 

 plates. There is more hydrogen than might be ex- 

 pected because part of the oxygen settles upon the 

 metal disks. The production of electrical energy in 

 these batteries is one of the consequences of the chemical 

 actions which go on in them, and one of these actions is 

 the decomposition of the water. In the living battery 

 the process is exactly the same, the plates here being 

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