ELECTRIC EEL. 271 



violent efforts to escape. Neither Redi nor Reaumur, how- 

 ever, could explain the cause of the strange phenomenon. 

 It was reserved for Dr. Walsh, a Fellow of the Royal Soci- 

 ety of London, to demonstrate the fact that the power was 

 electrical in its nature. This he did by numerous experi- 

 ments which he made in the Isle of R6. The following are 

 some of the experiments: 



He placed a living torpedo upon a clean wet towel ; from 

 a plate he suspended two pieces of brass wire by means of 

 silken cord, which served to isolate them. Round the tor- 

 pedo were eight persons, standing on isolating substances. 

 One end of the brass wire was supported hj the wet towel, 

 the other end being placed in a basin "full of water. Tlie 

 first person had a finger of one hand in this basin, and a 

 finger of the other in a second basin, also full of water. 

 The second person placed a finger of one hand in this sec- 

 ond basin, and a finger of the other hand in a third basin. 

 The third person did the same, and so on, until a complete 

 chain was established between the eight persons and nine 

 basins. Into the ninth basin the end of the second brass 

 wdre was plunged, w^hile Dr. Walsh applied the other end 

 to the back of the torpedo, thus establishing a complete 

 conducting circle. At the moment when the experimenter 

 touched the torpedo, the eight actors in the experiment felt 

 a sudden shock, similar in all respects to that communicated 

 by a shock of a Leyden jar, only less intense. 



Another fish little inferior to the torpedo in its " shock- 

 ing " properties is the electric eel. Its physical properties 

 enable it to arrest suddenly the pursuit of an enemy or the 

 flight of its prey, to suspend on the instant every movement 

 of its victim, and subdue it by an invisible power. Even 

 the fishermen themselves are suddenly struck and rendered 

 torpid at the moment of seeing it, while nothing external 

 betrays the mysterious power possessed by the animal. 

 At Calabozo on the Orinoco, the electric eel abound in 



