ACCOUNT or a METEOR. 173 
done with the eel, and hereafter will repeat all the old and 
make new experiments upon it*. 
This fith raifes its head every few minutes above the 
water to refpire. 
I have feen negroes take hold of it, at firft very cauti- 
oufly, receiving many light fhocks, but prefently have 
grafped it hard and taken it out of the water. 
There is a kind of light wood through which the eel 
cannot fhock. 
Mrs. Behn, in her Oroonoko, gives a defcription of this 
fifth, which fhe calls the numb-eel, and fays it is taken in 
the river Surinam. 
From the above experiments, partial as they are, I leave 
you, fir, to judge how far the torporific and electric fluids 
are alike. 
Iam, with the greateft refpe& and efteem, 
Your moft humble fervant, 
Seer HENRY COLLINS FLAGG. 
October 8, 1782. 
N° XIV. 
To Davip RITTENHOUSE, E/quire, from JOUN 
PAGE, E/quire. 
Williamfburg, December 4, =779- 
DEAR SIR, 
Read May JP HAVE often thought there was a ftrong re- 
“aes refemblance between fome of the phenomena 
of eletricity and magnetifm, and fancied I faw fomething 
like the two eletricities in the attraCtion and repulfion of 
Z the 
* Thad not been long in South-America when I made my obfervations; foon after which, 
the neceflary avocations of my profeflion, together with that relaxation of the mental powers 
generally confequent upon the laffitude of body incident to the inhabitants of warm climates, 
indifpofed me to the farther profecution of experiments I am now mortified at not having made. 
