GVMNOTUS ELECTRICUS. 171 



Other Of smaller dimensions; the former separated 

 from the skin by a mass of fat, and restmg upon the 

 electric organs, which occupy more than two-thirds 



of the fish. , ti,„ flrc.+ 



It would be rash to expose one's self to the hrst 

 shocks of a very large mdividual,— the pam ana 

 numbness which follow in such a case benig ex- 

 tremely violent. When in a state of great weak- 

 ness, the ammal produces in the person who touches 

 it a twitching, which is propagated from the hand to 

 the elbow; a kind of internal vibration lastmg two 

 or three seconds, and followed by paniful torpidity, 

 being feh after every stroke. The electric energy 

 depends upon the will of the creature, and it directs 

 it towards the point where it feels most strongly 

 irritated. The organ acts only under the immediate 

 influence of the brain and heart ; for when one ot 

 them was cut through the middle, the fore-part ot 

 the body alone gave shocks. Its action on man is 

 transmitted and intercepted by the same substances 

 that transmit and intercept the electrical current of 

 a conductor charged by a Leyden jar or a Voltaic 

 nile In the water the shock can be conveyed to 

 a considerable distance. No spark has ever been ob- 

 served to issue from the body of the eel when ex- 



cited. 



The gvmnoti are objects of dread to the natives, 

 and their presence is considered as tlie principal 

 cause of the want of fish in the pools of the llanos 

 All the inhabitants of the waters avoid them ; and 

 the Indians asserted that when they take young ai- 

 lio-ators and these animals in the same net, the latter 

 never display any appearance of wounds, because 

 they disable their enemies before they are attacked 

 bv them. It became necessary to change the di- 

 rection of a road near Urituco, solely because they 

 were so numerous in a river that they killed many 

 mules in the course of fording it. , ,, ^ , , ^ 



On the 24th March the travellers left Calabozo, 



