THE ELECTRIC EEL. 



Extraordinary instance recorded by Mr. Bryant. 



touching it with one hand so as to provoke it, 

 and holding the other in the water at a little 

 distance, a severe shock was felt through both 

 the arms, and across the breast, similar to that 

 from a charged jar. Eight or ten persons, with 

 tbeir hands joined, experienced the same, on the 

 first touching the head, and the last the tail of the 

 fish. A dog being made a link in this chain, at 

 the instant of contact uttered a loud yell. When 

 the eel was touched with silk, glass, or any 

 other non-conductor, no shock whatever was felt. 

 From a long series of experiments, it appeared 

 to Dr. Williamson that these properties partook 

 so nearly of the nature of electricity, that what- 

 ever would convey the electrical fluid would also 

 convey the fluid discharged by the eel, and vice 

 versa. He, however, was never able to observe 

 that any spark was produced on contact. This 

 mode of defence the fish never adopted except it 

 was irritated ; and the doctor has passed his hand 

 along the back and sides from head to tail, and 

 even lifted part of its body out of the water, with- 

 out tempting it to injure him. 



Mr. Bryant, in a letter also inserted in the 

 Phil. Trans, mentions an instance of the shock 

 being felt through a considerable thickness of 

 wood. One morning, while he was standing by, 

 as a servant was emptying a tub, in wh-ich one of 

 these fish was contained, he had lifted it entirely 

 from the ground, and was pouring off the water 

 to renew it, when he received a shock so violent 

 2 B 2 



