THE 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



ANNALS OF PHILOSOPHY. 



[NEW SERIES.] 



AUGUST 1829. 



XII. A71 Accoimt of some Experiments on the Torpedo. 

 By Sir Humphry Davy, Bart. F.R.S.* 



\ MIDST the variety of researches which have been pur- 

 -^^ sued respecting the different forms and modes of excita- 

 tion and action of electricity, it is surprising to me that the 

 electricity of living animals has not been more an object of at- 

 tention, both on account of its physiological importance, and 

 its general relation to the science of electro-chemistry. 



Ill reading an account of the experiments of Walsh, it is 

 impossible not to be struck by some peculiarities of the elec- 

 tricity of the organ of the Torpedo and Gymnotus ; such as 

 its want of power to pass through air, and the slight effects of 

 ignition produced by the strongest shocks : and though Mr. 

 Cavendish, with his usual sagacity, compared its action to that 

 of a battery weakly charged, when the electricity was large in 

 quantity but low in intensity, yet the peculiarities which I have 

 just mentioned are not entirely in harmony with this view of 

 the subject. 



When Volta discovered his wonderful pile, he imagined he 

 had made a perfect resemblance of the organ of the gymnotus 

 and torpedo ; and whoever has felt the shocks of the natural 

 and artificial instruments, must have been convinced, as i'ar as 

 sensation is concerned, of their strict analogy. After the dis- 

 covery of the chemical power of the voltaic instrument, I was 

 desirous of ascertaining if this property of electricity was pos- 

 sessed by the electrical organs of livin<r animals; and being 

 in 18 It and 1815 on the coast of the Mediterranean, I made 

 use of the opportunities which offered themselves of making 

 experiments on this subject. Having obtained in the Bay of 



*■ From the Philosophical Transactions for 1829. Part I. 

 N. S. Vol. 0. No. 32. Aujr. 1829. M Naples, 



