160 THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. 



those of any animals of their species. Any fish that 

 approaches them is killed, as with a stroke of light- 

 ning, and devoured without a struggle. Touch 

 them, and a shock is given like that of an electric 

 charge ; yet certain authors assure us that the negroes 

 handle the torpedo without danger. 



The electrical power of the gymnotus was unknown 

 in Europe until 1671, when the astronomer Eicher, 

 who was sent on a mission to Cayenne by the French 

 Academy of Sciences, observed and made known the 

 remarkable power of this fish. " I was much as- 

 tonished," says Richer, " to see a fish resembling an 

 eel, some three or four feet in length, deprive of all 

 motion for a quarter of an hour the arm and shoulder 

 of one who touched it with his finger or with a stick. 

 I was not only an eyewitness of this effect, but 1 

 have myself felt it on touching one of these fishes, 

 still living, though wounded by the hook with which 

 the Indians had drawn it from the water." 



The savans of Paris were at that time a sceptical 

 people. Richer 's account made so little impression 

 on them, that for seventy years no naturalist troubled 

 himself to inquire into it. This indifference lasted to 

 the time of Condamine, who spoke, in his " Voyages 

 en Amerique,'' of a fish which produced the effects 

 described by Richer. The phenomenon now excited 

 attention. Dr. Ingram published some views about 



