THE ELECTRIC EEL. 1Q7 



Remarks on these electric shocks. 



hold of the largest with one hand often, without 

 ever receiving a shock ; hut I never touched it 

 with hoth hands, at a little distance asunder, 

 without feeling a smart shock. 1 have often re- 

 marked, that when it is taken hold of with one 

 hand, and the other hand is put into the water 

 over its body, without touching it, the person 

 received a smart shock ; and I have observed the 

 same effect follow, when a number joined hands, 

 and the person at one extremity of the circle 

 took hold of, or touched the fish, and the person 

 at the other extremity put his hand into the 

 water over the body of the fish. The shock was 

 communicated through the whole circle as smart- 

 ly as if both the extreme persons had touched 

 the fish. In this, it seems to differ widely from 

 the torpedo, or else we are much misinformed of 

 the manner in which the benumbing effect of 

 that fish is communicated. The shock which 

 pur Surinam fish gives, seems to be wholly elec- 

 trical ; and all the phenomena, or properties of 

 it, exactly resemble those of the electric aura of 

 our atmosphere, when collected, as far as they 

 are discoverable from the several trials made on 

 this fish. This stroke is communicated by the 

 same conductors, and intercepted by the interpo- 

 sition of the same original electrics, or electrics 

 per se, as they are called. The keeper of these 

 fish informed me, that he caught them in Suri- 

 nam river, a great way up, beyond where the 



