ELECTRICAL TORPEDO, 491 



All our experiments confirm, that the electricity of the torpedo is 

 condensed, in the instant of its explosion, by a sudden energy of 

 the animal ; and as there is no gradual accumulation, or retention 

 of it, as in the case of charged glass, it is not at all surprising, that 

 no signs of attraction or repulsion were perceived in the pith balls. 

 In short, the effect of the torpedo appears to arise from a com- 

 pressed elastic fluid, restoring itself to its equilibrium in the same 

 way, and by the same mediums as the elastic fluid compressed in 

 charged glass. The skin of the animal, bad conductor as it is, 

 seems to be a better conductor of his electricity than the thinnest 

 plate of elastic air. Notwithstanding the weak spring of the tor- 

 pedinal electricity, I was able, in the public exhibitions of my 

 experiments at La Rochelle, to convey it through a circuit, formed 

 from one surface of the animal to the other, by two long brass 

 wires, and four persons, which number, at times, was encreased 

 even to eight. The several persons were made to communicate 

 with eich other, and the two outermost with the wires, by means 

 of water, contained in basins, properly disposed between them for 

 that purpose." 



This curious and convincing experiment is thus related by Mon- 

 sieur Seignette, (mayor of La Rochelle, and one of the secreta- 

 ries of its academy) published in the French gazettes for the month 

 of October, in the above year. 



" A live torpedo was placed on a table. Round another table 

 stood five persons insulated. Two brass wires, each thirteen feet 

 long, were suspended to the ceiling by silken strings. One of 

 these wires rested by one end on the wet napkin on which the fish 

 lay: the other end was immersed in a basin full of water, placed 

 on the second table,' on which stood four other basins likewise full 

 of water. The first person put a finger of one hand in the basin 

 in which the wire was immersed, and a finger of the other hand in 

 a second basin. The second person put a finger of one hand in 

 this last basin, and a finger of the other hand in the third ; and 

 so on successively, till the five persons communicated with one 

 another by the water in the basins. In the last basin one end of 

 the second wire was immersed ; and with the other end Mr 

 Walsh touched the back of the torpedo, when the five persons 

 felt a commotion, which differed in nothing from that of the Leyden 



