ELECTRICITY. 363 



The ancient naturalists were well aware of another interesting elec- 

 trical phenomenon in the shocks of the torpedo. Aristotle says that Aristotle. 

 " this tish causes or produces a torpor upon those fishes it is about to B-c * 341 ' 

 seize, and having by that means got them into its mouth, feeds upon 

 them." He further adds, that this fish " hides itself in the sand and 

 mud, and catches those fish that swim over it by benumbing them, 

 and of this some have been eye-witnesses : the same fish has also the 

 power of benumbing men." Pliny says that " this fish, if touched by 

 a rod or spear, even at a distance, paralyses the strongest muscles, 

 and binds and arrests the feet however swift." (' Nat. Hist.' xxxii. 

 ch. i.) Galen the physician has given a similar description (' De 

 Locis Affect.') Oppian describes the organs by which the animal Oppian. 

 produces this effect (lib. ii. ver. 62) ; and Claudian has a short poem ciaudiam** 

 upon the subject. The medical writers speak of applying the shocks A - c - 395 - 

 of the torpedo for the cure of diseases. Scribonius Largus, (cap. xli.) Scribonius 

 relates, that Anthero, a freedman of Tiberius, was by this means La 2J "! 5 o. 

 cured of the gout. Dioscorides advises the same remedy for inveterate 

 pains of the head (lib. ii. art. Torpedo). Further notices of this 

 application may be found in Galen, * Simp. Medic.' lib. xi. Paulus Galen, &c. 

 JSgineta, lib. vii. Such is a summary of the knowledge of the A - c * 144 * 

 ancients upon electricity ; but the curious reader will also find much 

 interesting matter on this subject in a dissertation by Dr. Falconer, 

 contained in the third volume of the * Memoirs of the Manchester 

 Society,' wherein it is rendered exceedingly probable that the use 

 of conductors for attracting lightning from the clouds, was not un- 

 known even in these early times. 



The scanty fragments of information which the literature of the 

 middle ages affords on this and every other scientific subject may be 

 passed over in silence ; and it may fairly be asserted, that from the 

 time of Pliny until the end of the fifteenth century no advance what- 

 ever took place in the branch of natural philosophy now before us. 

 There is, however, mention made of more than one electrical pheno- 

 menon in the scholia upon Homer, by Eustathius, bishop of Thessalo- Eustathius. 

 nica, about A. c. 1160; one of these passages, relating to^Walimer, A '' 

 the king of the Goths, who commenced his reign, according to Du 

 Fresnoy, A. c. 415, is too singular to be passed by unnoticed. 

 " BaXijjiep 6 Qev^epi-^ov Trcm/p, 6 /carcticpanfo'ae 'IraXtaf (jxifflv 

 cnrdffrjQ, rov oiKtic, awparog ffTrtvdrjpae aTreVaXXe. Kal rig Se aofycQ 

 TraXcuo'e <j>r](ri Trepl eavTOv, on ivdvofjievov TTOTE Kal eK^vopevov ai/rov, 

 ffTTivdfipciQ a7T7n]C(i)v e^aiffioi, 'icmv ore Kal KTVTTOVVTEQ. kv'iole $ Kal 

 0Xoy 6'Xcu rareXajuTrov, ^ijtri, TO iuaTiov JJ.TJ jccuovacu." (Eustath. 

 4 in II.' E. p. 515, lin. 4, ed. Rom.) 



" Walimer, the father of Theodoric, (uncle, Trarpug ?) who con- 

 quered, as they say, the whole of Italy, used to emit sparks from his 

 own body; and a certain ancient philosopher says of himself, that 

 once when he was dressing and undressing himself, sudden sparks 



