GYMNOTUS. 
“The length of this fith is from three to four or five feet ; 
the head is fhort and fprinkled with perforated dots ; the 
body blackifh, with a number of {mall annular bends 
it; 
re electric Fe sae of thie extraordinary creature have 
object of tea ae ity among natural- 
ae ct even vhilofo. 
, lofo- 
phers of Pirpe till about the year 1677, when an ee 
of it was communicated to the French academy by 1 
Richer, one of the gentlemen deputed by the aca ef 
conduc fome mathematical obfervations in iesd oe and oh 
ave been difcovered for 
The fciences not having 
at that period made any very confiderable progrefs, the im- 
portance of this communication was not duly confidered ; 
indeed does it appear to have obtained that juft fhare of cveait 
ablifhed through the obfervations 
ram, cand _others. The experiments of 
0 thofe of 
‘ova. in South Carolina. 
From the obfervations of Condamine and others, engaged 
about the fame time in a feries of experiments on the 
de flee properties of this fifh, it is clearly demontftrated, that 
sated 
the fith with the fingers, the fame fenfation is shes as on 
ouchin , being fometimes felt as far as the 
both hands, an e ock 
opportunities of examining this animal, and he has demon- 
ftrated by experiment, that fourteen we holding each other 
by the hands, received the fhock at the fame time, the firft 
touching the fith with a ftick, and Ge laft dipp = hand 
into ay water ir in yo it was is 
a inftantly ftruck m dropping to the bottom 
of the water, become an eafy pre The fhock this fifh is 
of exerting is fo powerful as to deprive, al 
2 and is therefore much wr ie thofe 
in the rivers it inhabits. m even, that ‘ie 
the € fhock given by tak % of a larger fize is fo 
Srvat as to genes inftant death. 
pious general hiftory of this | lar creature 
tat has ct tes is that addrefied by Dr. Garden to the 
may be 
he leading — of which it it r 
preg largeit o fifhes examine 
ue Come oe three feet eight seches i in length, 
cireumferenee abc about the pear owe from o to four- 
‘he vio [moo 
» and the gape large. ©The no are two on 
each de the fr large, tubular, and clevated above the 
furface; the others fmail, level with the fkin, and placed 
igdinadistely behind the verge of the roftrum, at the diftance 
e eyes are fmall, fiattith, and Aaa 
the nof- 
head, ger then grows {maller, but at the fame time Aecpes 
or becomes of an acinaciform fhape to the point of the tail, 
which is rather blunt. There are man light coloured fpots 
on the back and fides of the body, laced a case esi aks 
diftances in reg lines, but more numerous and diftiné 
towards oa tail. 
s fith was fwimming, it meafured fix inches in 
depth fe "the middle, from the upper part of the back 
to the lower edge of the fin, and the back at that part 
more than two inches broad. The whole body, 
from about four inches below the head, feems to be mat 
verging, as the fifh grow 
vifible a depreffion or furro rrow in their ait t ws to diftinguith 
this from the fecond part or divifion, which oe. be pr 
called the body, or at leaft appears to be the ftrong muticular 
part of the fifh. The fecond divifion is of a lyhter and 
more clear blueifh colour than the upper 
to fwell out fomewhat on each fide from the depreflion of 
the lateral lines, but towards the lower or under part is again 
more inclining to grey. n the ani tly in 
pretty deep water, the rhomboidal reticulations er the fkin of 
this carina are v dife ernible ; but when the wat ater is is fhallow, 
a like many irregular lon 
bens about fi fix ele feven inches below the bafe of the head, 
thinneft ; this carina 
tail 
the body of the fith, ian an inch or an inch anda half 
in thicknefs, ae is gradual ly fharpened to a thin edge where 
the fourth and laft part is fiecated. ce 
more 
or five minutes, by raifing t : 
of the fkin of Retin: aon 
crofs bands or 
body, or rather the ru 
by a ee A 
where new rings take 
‘down to 
itfelf to erg ar Rew re anae ‘chat befides this 
power 
he fituation of the vent in this fith is fingular, being 
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