50G HISTOKY OF 



opening tlie fish, and laying it on the part injured, it effects a 

 speedy cure. The slightiiess of the remedy proves the innocence 

 of the wound. ' 



The Torpedo is an animal of this kind, equally formidable 

 and well known with the former ; but the manner of its operat- 

 ing is to this hour a mystery to mankind. The body of this fish 

 is almost circular, and thicker than others of the ray kind ; the 

 skin is soft, smooth, and of a yellowish colour, marked, as all the 

 kind, with large annular spots ; the eyes very small ; the tail 

 tapering to a point ; and the weight of the fish from a quarter to 

 fifteen pounds. Redi found one twenty-four pounds weight. 

 To all outward appearance, it is furnished with no extraordinary 

 powers ; it has no muscles formed for particularly great exer- 

 tions ; no internal conformation perceptibly difltring from the 

 rest of its kind ; yet such is that unaccountable power it pos- 

 sesses, that, the instant it is touched, it numbs not only the hand 

 and arm, but sometimes also the whole body. The shock re- 

 ceived, by all accounts, most resembles the stroke of an electrical 

 -nachine ; sudden, tingling, and painful. " The instant," says 

 Kempfer, " I touched it with my hand, I felt a terrible numb- 

 ness in my arm, and as far up as the shoulder. Even if one 

 treads upon it with the shoe on, it affects not only the leg, but 

 the whole thigh upwards. Those who touch it with the foot, 

 are seized with a stronger palpitation than even those who touch 

 it with the hand. — This numbness bears no resemblance to that 

 which we feel when a nerve is a long time pressed, and the foot 

 is said to be asleep ; it rather appears like a sudden vapour, 

 which passing through the pores in an instant, penetrates to the 

 very springs of life, from whence it diffuses itself over the whole 

 body, and gives real pain. The nerves are so affected, that the 

 person struck imagines all the bones of his body, and particularly 

 those of the limb that received the blow, are driven out of joint. 

 All this is accompanied with a universal tremor, a sickness of 

 the stomach, a general convulsion, and a total suspension of tin 

 faculties of the mind. In short," continues Kempfer, "such i*^ 

 the pain, that all the force of our promises and authority could 

 not prevail upon a seaman to undergo the shock a second time. 



1 The account of the venomous properties of this spine, as well a^ that it 

 is shed annually, appears to be altog^ether fabulous. It is probable that, by 

 its great strength, it may be able to inflict a painfully lacerated wound. 



