reJpeSiing EkSfricity, 283 



general principle it ought to be afcribed. They 

 noticed the fenfation, and its effefls on the body, 

 the ufe the fifli nnakes of this property for its 

 defence and fupport, and that the fidi had the 

 power of conveying it through wood, metals, 

 hemp or flax, and even through water j and 

 laftly, that this extraordinary power was lodged 

 in organs peculiar to the fifh, a faft which the 

 late accounts of the difleftion of the electrical 

 eel farther confirm. It is remarkable, that 

 Pliny afcribes this power of the fifh to a certain 

 invifible agency, and calls it by the fame name* 

 that has been applied by later writers to de- 

 nominate the eleftrical influence. 



It is farther worthy of remark, that the elec- 

 trical fhock, imparted by means of the living tor- 

 pedo, was ufed in medicine, Vofliusj- mentions, 

 from fome ancient authority, that an inveterate 



* Quod fi necefle habemus fateri, hocexemplo, t{^& vim 

 aliquam, quae odore tantum & quadam aura fui corporis 

 afficiat membra, quid non de remediorum omnium mo- 

 mentis fperandum eft. Plin. XXXIJ. cap. i. 



f It appears to be from Scribonius Largus. 



Capitis dolorem quemvis veterem & intolerabilem pro- 

 tinus tollit & in perpetuum remediat torpedo viva nigra, 

 impofita eo loco qui in dolore elt, donee definat dolor & 

 obftupefcat ea pars, quod quum primum fenfcrit, remove- 

 atur remedium, ne fenfus auferatur ejus partis. Plures 

 autem parandas funt ejus generis torpedines, quia nonnun- 

 quam vix ad duas, tiefve refpondet curatio, id ell, torpor 

 quod fignum ell remediationis. Scrib. Larg. cap. 1. 



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