282 On the Knowledge of the ./Indents 



fays, " that the torpedo is endued with fuch a 

 *' a power, that if it be touched by the fifherman 

 " with his eel fpear, it inftantly ftupifies the 

 " hand, tranfmitting this power through the 

 *' fpear, to the hand." Plutarch* fays, ** that 

 '^ it affeds the fifhernnen through the drag-net j 

 *' and, that if any perfon pours water on a living 

 '' torpedo, the fenfation will be conveyed through 

 " the water to the hand." 



Oppian has gone ftill farther, and has dif- 

 covered the organs by which this fifli is enabled 

 to produce this extraordinary effeft, which he 

 afcribes to " twoj- organs of a radiated texture, 

 " which are fixed, or grow on each fide of the 

 " fifh," Claudian has written a fliort poem 

 on the torpedo, but he mentions no qualities 

 of it different from thofe which have been re- 

 cited above, fave that it can convey its influence 

 from the hook, with which it is caught, to the 

 hand of the fifherman. From the above accounts 

 we fee, that the philofophers of antiquity had 

 accurately obferved the nature of this extraor- 

 dinary influence, though they knew not to what 



* Plutarch de Solert, i\nim. 



AvriKU 01 jmeAewj aOevoi 17^s<t£v. 



Opp. lib. II. ver. 62. 



general 



