344 PRESENT STATE OF ORGANIC ELECTRICITY. 



direction of lines of inductive action in the water, will be 

 affected less powerfully by the circulating electric power than 

 if it were placed across these lines. Mr. Faraday * found that 

 while the Gymnotus can stun and kill fishes which are in 

 various positions in relation to its own body, it can, moreover, 

 by throwing itself so as to form a coil enclosing the fish, the 

 latter representing a diameter across it, 'so concentrate its 

 currents of one side as to strike it motionless as if by lightning. 

 The Torpedo would also appear, from the observations of Dr. 

 Davy, instinctively to elevate or arrange its margin so as to 

 adjust the direction of its currents to the position of the object 

 through which it wishes to pass them. " Thus," as Mr. Faraday 

 observes, "the very conducting power which the water has, 

 that which it gives to the moistened skin of the fish or animal 

 to be struck, the extent of surface by which the fish and water 

 conducting the charge to it are in contact, all conduce to 

 favour and increase the shock upon the doomed animal." 



* Phil. Trans. 1839. 



