ELECTRIC EEL. 259 



there appears to be a whimsical repugnance to the eel 

 kind, from the similitude which they bear to serpents. 



THE ELECTRIC EEL. 



Except the torpedo, no animal in nature possesses such 

 remarkable qualities as this. Naturalists are indebted for 

 the most important particulars in its history to the accurate 

 account of Dr. Garden, of South Carolina, communicated 

 to the Royal Society. This gentleman had an opportunity 

 of inspecting no less than five at once, which had been 

 brought from Surinam by an English mariner. The largest 

 measured about three feet eight inches in length ; and from 

 ten to fourteen inches in circumference, in the thickest 

 part of the body. The head was large, broad, and flat; 

 and the mouth compressed here and there with holes, as 

 if perforated with a blunt needle. There were two nostrils 

 on each side ; the first large, tubular, and elevated above 

 the surface ; the other small, and level with the skin. The 

 eyes were small, and of a bluish colour; and the whole 

 body, from about four inches below the head, was clearly 

 distinguished into four longitudinal parts or divisions. 

 Across the body were a number of small bands, annular 

 divisions, or rather wrinkles of the skin; by means 

 of which the fish had the power of lengthening or 

 shortening itself like a worm, and could swim backwards 

 as well as forwards. There were two pectoral fins situ- 

 ated just behind the head, scarcely an inch long: these 

 the fish seemed to use principally as a means of raising his 

 head out of the water, which it frequently did for the 

 sake of breathing. 



The electric eel gives a shock to any person or any 

 number of persons who join hands, touching it, to a very 

 violent degree ; and hence it has been found difficult to 

 examine it when alive. Mr. John Hunter, who dissected 

 one of them, found that the nerves of this fish appropriated 

 to the exercise of its electric powers, and which arise par- 

 ticularly from the spinal marrow, are considerably larger 

 than those which are bestowed on any other part for the 



