270 INCIDENTS RELATED, 



a thickish gelatinous fluid, and abundantly supplied with 

 nerves, situated between the gills and the head of the fish. 



The electrical organs are two in number. The number 

 of cells varies according to the size of the fish ; thus, in 

 each organ of one fish were counted four hundred and sev- 

 enty, and in another large fish one thousand one hundred 

 and eighty-two. This natural electricity can be drawn from 

 the fish by means of a conductor, and a shock is felt through 

 a circuit formed by several persons joining hands. 



The electrical efi'ects produced on the fisherman who 

 seize them were noted from early times ; but Redi, the Ital- 

 ian naturalist of the seventeenth century, was the first who 

 studied them scientifically. He caught and landed one of them 

 with every precaution. " I had scarcely touched and pressed 

 it with my hand," says the Italian artist, " than I experi- 

 enced a tingling sensation, which extended to my arms and 

 shoulders, which was followed by a disagreeable trembling, 

 with a painful and acute sensation in the elbow joint, which 

 made me withdraw my arm immediately." 



Reaumur also made some observations upon the Torpedo. 

 " The benumbing influence," he says, *' is very different from 

 any similar sensation. All over the arm there is a commo- 

 tion which it is impossible to describe, but which, so far as 

 comparison can be made, resembles the sensation produced 

 by striking the tender part of the elbow against a hard sub- 

 stance." Redi remarks, besides, that the pain and trembling 

 sensation resulting from the touch diminishes as the death 

 of the Torpedo approaches, and -that it ceases altogether 

 when the animal dies. 



In the seventeenth century the fishermen affirmed that 

 the sensation was even communicated through the line by 

 which it was caught, and even by the water. Redi does 

 not deny this phenomenon, neither does he confirm it. He 

 states that the action of the animal is never more energetic 

 than when it is strongly pressed by the hand, and makes 



