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NATURAL HISTORY. 



JiccouTit of the Torpedo. From 

 Shan's British Zoology. 



THE torpedo has been cele- 

 brated both by ancients aad 

 moderns for its wonderful faculty 

 of cansing a sudden numbness or 

 painful sensation in tl>e limbs of 

 those who touch or handle it. This 

 power the ancients, unacquainted 

 with the theory of electricitj', were 

 contented to admire, vvitiiout at- 

 tempting to explain ; and, as is 

 usual in similar cases, mai^nified 

 into an effect little short of what is 

 commonly ascribed to encliantment. 

 Thus we are told by Qppian, that 

 the torpedo, conscious of his latent 

 faculty, when caught by a hook, 

 exerts it in such a manner that, 

 passing along the line and rod, it 

 benumbs the astonished lisherman, 

 and suddenly reduces him to a state 

 of helpless stupefactiou. 



The hook'd torpedo, with instinctive 



force, 

 Calls all his magic from its secret 



source : 

 ^uick thro' the slender line and polished 



wniid 

 It darts; and tingles in U»* offending 



hand. 

 The palsied fisherman, in dumb sur- 

 prise, 

 Feels thro' his frame the chilling vapours 



rise : 

 Drops the lost rod, and seems, in sliff'- 



iiing pain, 

 9ome frost fix'd wanderer on \,ht polar 



plaifi. 



Itis affirmed by Pliny, that the tor- 

 pedo, even when touched with aspear 

 or stick, can benumb the strongest 

 arm, and stop the swiftest foot. 



It is well observed by Dr. Bloch, 

 that these exaggerations, on the part 

 of the ancients, are the less to be 

 wondered at when we reflect oa 

 similar ones in modern times. Thus 

 when IMuschenbroek happened acci- 

 dentally to discover and feel theeifedt 

 of the eleftric shock from Avhat is 

 called theLeyden phial, he represent- 

 ed it of so terrible a nature as to aftiecSt 

 his heal th for several days afterwards, 

 and declared that he would not un- 

 dergo a second for the whole king. 

 dom of France. Yet this is now 

 the common amusement of philoso- 

 phical curiosity. 



The observations of the learned 

 Redi and others of the seventeenth 

 century, had tended, in some de- 

 gree, to elucidate the peculiar ac- 

 tions and anatomy of the torpedo ; 

 but it was reserved for more modern 

 times, and for our own ingenious 

 countrymen in particular, to ex- 

 plain in a more satisfaftory manner 

 the particulars of its history ; and 

 to prove that its power is ttwXj 

 electric. The first experiments ot" 

 this kind were made by Mr. Walsh, 

 of the royal society of London, at 

 Rochellc in France., in the year 1772. 



" The c.Scti of the torpedo," 

 says Mr. Walsh, " appears to be 

 absolutely ele6lrjcal forming, its cir- 

 cuit through thv same conductors 



with 



