ANNALS © 
OF 
PHILOSOPHY. 
FEBRUARY, 1819. 
ARTICLE I. 
Short Account of the Scientific Writings of Dr. Ingenhousz. 
. By Thomas Thomson, M.D. F.RS. 
IN volume x, p. 161, of the Annals of Philosophy, there is 
inserted a biographical account of Dr. Ingenhousz, in which 
Dr. Garthshore, the writer of the article, has given a short account 
of the writings of this ingenious philosopher. Probably the 
readers of the Annals will not be displeased if I take a short 
review of such of Dr. Ingenhousz’s papers as I have had an 
opportunity of reading, and endeavour to point out the particular 
pa discoveries, or improvements, for which we are indebted 
to him. 
1. His first paper on the torpedo was published in the Philo- 
sophical Transactions for 1775. It merely informs us that being in 
Leghorn in December, 1772, he went out 20 miles to sea, and 
caught a number of torpedoes. He verified the power which 
this fish has of giving electric shocks. These shocks he found 
very weak, which ‘is usually the case in winter, and they could 
not be communicated through a chain of metal. 
It was in 1773 that Mr. Walsh made his celebrated observa- 
tions and experiments on torpedoes. These experiments had- 
been published before Dr. Ingenhousz’s paper, and of course 
had anticipated all the facts contained init. But it would appear 
from a comparison of dates, that Dr. Ingenhousz’s experiments 
were made at least as early, if not earlier, than those of Mr. 
Walsh. The subsequent experiments of Mr. Cavendish, and 
the comparison of the electrical organs of the torpedo with those 
of the voltaic battery, have thrown much additional light on the 
Vou. XII. N° I. F 
