THE TORPEDO. 8Q 



Of its toporific qnality. 



gins to feel if, imagines that his fingers have 

 been violently struck. Rheaumur adds, that the 

 single stroke of a soft body could never effect 

 this; but in the present case there is an infinity 

 of strokes given in an instant. When the tor- 

 pedo is ready to strike its numbness, it slowly 

 flattens the outer surface of its upper part, and 

 the whole mechanism, which its force depends, 

 will be apparent. By that gradual contraction 

 it bends, as it were, all its springs, renders all its 

 cylinders shorter, and at the same time augments 

 their basis. But the contraction being made to 

 a certain degree, the springs again unbend; and 

 if a finger then touch the torpedo, it instantly 

 receives a stroke which shakes the nerves, sus- 

 pends, or changes the course of the animal spirit: 

 or, if the idea be more distinct, these strokes 

 produce an undulatory motion in the fibres of 

 the nerves, which clashes, or disagrees, with 

 what they should have in order to move the 

 arm ; and hence the inability we are under of 

 using the same, and the painful sensation which 

 accompanies it. Hence it is, also, that the tor- 

 pedo does not convey its numbness to any de- 

 gree except when touched on these great mus- 

 cles; so that the fish is very safely taken by the 

 tail, which is the part by which the fishermen 

 catch it. 



Lorenzini and others, have endeavoured to ac- 

 count for the effect of the torpedo from toporific 

 effluvia: this Rheaumur objects to with a variety 

 VOL. v. NO. 32. M 



