192 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Remarks by Messrs. Ingrain and Gravesend. 



of the fish from them : they say that it strikes 

 the other fish with its tail, hy which it benumbs, 

 and afterwards devours them ; which is very pro- 

 bable, considering the effect which it produces 

 on men when they touch it." 



Richer's account, however, was received with 

 such a degree of cautious scepticism in Europe, 

 that, for seventy years, not the smallest notice 

 was taken of this fish by any naturalist, till about 

 the middle of the last century, M. de la Conda- 

 mine, in his " Travels in America," mentions a 

 fish producing the same effects as that described 

 by Richer. In a letter, (dated February, 1?0,) 

 Mr. Ingram furnished some more authentic in- 

 formation relating to this fish, which he calls the 

 torpedo ; though from his description it is obvious 

 that he alluded to the electric eel. lie imagined 

 that the fish probably has an electric atmosphere 

 ground it, because when he offered to touch it 

 with a piece of iron, his arm felt such a violent 

 shock before it came in contact, that he was ob- 

 liged to drop the iron. But Mr. Gravesend first 

 discovered that this shock was caused by electric 

 matter. In a letter to Professor Allemand, 

 dated Rio Issequebo, 22d of November, 1755, 



he says: 



"This fish produces the same effect as an elec- 

 tric shock communicated by the Leyden jar, hut 

 with this difference, that no spark is observed let 

 the shock be ever so strong : for if the fish be 

 large it infallibly ^nocks down those who touch 



