HABITS OF THE ELECTlilC EEL. 121 



they had been made to fast a long time, they killed small 

 fishes put into the tub. They acted from a distance ; that 

 is to say, their electrical shock passed through a very thick 

 stratum of water. We need not be surprised that what waa 

 observed in Sweden, on a single gymnotus only, we could 

 Dot perceive in a great number of individuals in their native 

 country. The electric action of animals being a vital action, 

 and subject to f;heir will, it does not depend solely on their 

 state ot health and. vigour. A gymnotus that has been 

 kept a long time in captivity, accustoms itself to the im- 

 prisonment to which is is reduced; it resumes by degrees 

 the same habits in the tub, which it had in the rivers and 

 marshes. An electrical eel was brought to me at Calabozo : 

 it had been taken in a net, and consequently having no 

 wound. It ate meat, and terribly frightened the little tor- 

 toises and frogs which, not aware of their danger, placed 

 themselves on its back. The frogs did not receive the stroke 

 till the moment when they touehed the body of the 

 gymnotus. When they recovered, they leaped out of the 

 tub ; and when replaced near the fish, they were frightened 

 at the mere sight of it. We then observed nothing that 

 indicated an action at a distance ; but our gymnotus, recently 

 taken, was not yet sufficiently tame to attack and devour 

 frogs. On approaching the finger, or the metallic points, 

 very close to the electric organs, no shock was felt. Perhaps 

 the animal did not perceive the proximity of a foreign body ; 

 or, if it did, we must suppose that in the commencement of 

 its captivity, timidity prevented it from darting forth its 

 energetic strokes except when strongly irritated by an 

 immediate contact. The gymnotus being immersed in water, 

 I placed my hand, both armed and unarmed with metal, 

 within a very small distance from the electric organs; yet 

 the strata of water transmitted no shock, while M. Bonpland 

 irritated the animal strongly by an immediate contact, and 



of water, more or leas thick according to the distance, opposed to the 

 electrical current. When very much pressed by hunger, it sometimes 

 directed the shocks against the person who daily brought its food of 

 boiled meat. Persons afflicted with rheumatism rame to touch it in hopes 

 of being cured. They took it at once by the neck and tail : the shocks 

 were in this case stronger than when touched with one hand only. It 

 Almost entirely lost its electrical power a short time before its death.' 



