VOL. LXIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 471 



complete darkness. I observed to you, in my last, the singularity of the torpedo 

 being able, when insulated, to give to an insulated person a great number of suc- 

 cessive shocks: in this situation I have taken no less than 50 from him in the 

 space of a minute and a half. All our experiments confirmed, that this elec- 

 tricity was condensed, in the instant of its explosion, by a sudden energy of the 

 animal; and as there was no gradual accumulation, nor retention of it, as in the 

 case of charged glass, it is not at all surprizing that no signs of attraction or 

 repulsion were perceived in the pith balls. In short, the effect of the torpedo 

 appears to arise from a compressed elastic fluid, restoring itself to its equilibrium 

 in the same way, and by the same mediums, as the elastic fluid compressed in 

 charged glass. The skin of the animal, bad conductor as it is, seems to be a 

 better conductor of his electricity, than the thinnest plate of elastic air. Not- 

 withstanding the weak spring of the torpedinal electricity, I was able, in the 

 public exhibitions of my experiment at La Rochelle, to convey it through a 

 circuit, formed from one surface of the animal to the other, by 2 long brass 

 wires, and 4 persons, which number, at times, was increased even to 8. The 

 several persons were made to communicate with each other, and the 2 outermost 

 with the wires, by means of water contained in basins, properly disposed between 

 them for the purpose; each person dipping his hands in the nearest basins, 

 connective with his neighbour on either side. 



" The effect produced by the torpedo, when in air, appeared, on many 

 repeated experiments, to be about 4 times as strong as when in water." 



A clear and succinct narrative of what passed at one of the public exhibitions, 

 alluded to in the last letter, appeared in the French gazette of the 30th Oct., 

 1772. As it came from a very respectable quarter, not less so from the private 

 character of the gentleman, than from the public ofiices he held, I must desire 

 leave of the society to avail myself of such a testimony to the facts I have 

 advanced, by giving a translation of that narrative. 

 Extract of a Letter from the Sieur Seignette, Mayor of La Rochelle, and 



second perpetual Secretary of the ylcademy of that City, to the publisher of 



the French Gazette. 



" In the gazette of the 14th Aug., you mentioned the discovery made by 

 Mr. Walsh, member of the parliament of England, and of the r. s. of London. 

 The experiment of which I am going to give you an account, was made in the 

 presence of the academy of this city. A live torpedo was placed on a table. 

 Round another table stood 5 persons insulated. Two brass wires, each 13 feet 

 long, were suspended to the ceiling by silken strings. One of these wires rested 

 by one end on the wet napkin on which the fish lay ; the other end was immersed 

 in a basin full of water placed on the 2d table, on which stood 4 other basins 

 likewise full of water. The first person put a finger of one hand in the basin in 



