2O4 ELECTRIC DISCHARGES. 



guardsman came down upon the boards with the 

 clang of cuirass and sabre, to the great amuse- 

 ment of the spectators. 



Faraday, in summing up the powers of electrical 

 fishes, observes : " I cannot refrain from pointing 

 out the enormous absolute quantity of electricity 

 which the animal must put in circulation at each 

 effort. It is doubtful if any common electrical 

 machine has as yet been able to supply electricity 

 sufficient, in a reasonable time, to cause true elec- 

 tro-chemical decomposition of water; yet the cur- 

 rent from a fish has done it. 



" The electrical discharges, each of which en- 

 dures for a sensible period of time, resemble more 

 those of a voltaic apparatus, intermittent in its 

 action, than those of a Leyden jar, which make 

 their transit in an instant." 



Henry Letheby 1 states that " there are arranged 

 along the interior of the body of the electric eel 

 two pairs of electric organs, composed of aggre- 

 gations of regular cells of membranous tissues, 

 extending obliquely from within outward, and con- 

 taining a peculiar albumino-gelatinous fluid. The 

 dimensions of these cells are about two hundred in 

 the space of an inch. The entire number of cells 

 in the batteries on both sides is about five hundred 

 and fifty thousand. There are good reasons for 

 believing that the brain and spinal cord are the 

 seat of power, and that the battery is no other 



1 Transactions of London Electrical Society, p. 367. 



