FISHES. 541 



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 commotion which it is impos- 

 sible 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 substance/' 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 sensa- 

 tion 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 violent efforts to escape. Neither Redi nor Re'aumur, 

 however, could explain the cause of the strange phenomenon. It 

 was reserved for Dr. Walsh, a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, 

 to demonstrate the fact that the power was electrical in its nature. 

 This he did by numerous experiments which he made in the Isle of 

 Re. The following are some of his 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 torpedo were eight persons, 

 standing on isolating substances. One end of the brass wire was sup- 

 ported by the wet towel, the other end being placed in a basin full of 

 water. The 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 second 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 wire was. plunged, while 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 the shock of a Leyden jar, only 

 less intense. 



When the torpedo was placed on an isolated supporter, it com- 

 municated to many persons similarly placed from forty to fifty shocks 

 in a minute and a half. Each effort made by the animal, in order 

 to give them, was accompanied by the depression of its eyes, which 

 were slightly projecting in their natural state, and seemed to be 



