Structure of the electric organ 209 



the electricity through one loop than another, which was my reason for 

 using this machine rather than a plain chain. Considerable irregularities 

 occurred in trying the above experiments, and indeed all those with a 

 chain; for it frequently happened, that the shock would not pass with 

 the battery charged to a certain degree, when perhaps a minute after, it 

 would pass with not more than three-fourths of the charge. The irregu- 

 larity, however, was not so great but that, I think, I may be certain of 

 the truth of the foregoing facts; especially as the experiments were re- 

 peated several times. The uncertainty was at least as great in the experi- 

 ments with Lane's electrometer, when the knobs were brought so close 

 together, as is necessary in experiments of this kind. 



435] It appears therefore, that if the whole battery, and a single row 

 of it, are both charged in such a degree as to give a shock of the same 

 strength, the shock with the whole battery will pass through fewer loops 

 of the chain than that with the single row; so that, I think, there can be 

 no doubt, but that if the battery had been large enough, I should have 

 been able to give a shock of the usual strength, which yet would not have 

 passed through a single interval of the links of a chain. 



436] On the whole, I think, there seems nothing in the phenomena of 

 the torpedo at all incompatible with electricity; but to make a compleat 

 imitation of them, would require a battery much larger than mine. It 

 may be asked, where can such a battery be placed within the torpedo? 

 I answer, perhaps it is not necessary that there should be anything 

 analogous to a battery within it. The case is this; it appears, that the 

 quantity of electric fluid, transferred from one side of the torpedo to the 

 other, must be extremely great; for otherwise it could not give a shock, 

 considering that the force with which it is impelled is so small as not to 

 make it pass through any sensible space of air. Now if such a quantity 

 of fluid was to be transferred at once from one side to the other, the force 

 with which it would endeavour to escape would be extremely great, and 

 sufficient to make it dart through the air to a great distance, unless there 

 was something within it analogous to a very large battery. But if we 

 suppose, that the fluid is gradually transferred through the electrical 

 organs, from one side to the other, at the same time that it is returning 

 back over the surface, and through the substance, of the rest of the body; 

 so that the quantity of fluid on either side is during the whole time very 

 little greater or less than what is naturally contained in it; then it is 

 possible, that a very great quantity of fluid may be transferred from one 

 side to the other, and yet the force with which it is impelled be not sufficient 

 to force it through a single interval of the links of a chain. There seems, 

 however, to be room in the fish for a battery of a sufficient size; for 

 Mr Hunter* has shewn, that each of the prismatical columns of which 



* "Anatomical observations on the Torpedo." By John Hunter, F.R.S. Phil. 

 Trans. LXIII (1773), p. 485. See Art. 614. 



c. p. i. 14 



