182 CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



of a minute and a half. All these experiments confirmed 

 the belief that the electricity of this fish is condensed, in 

 the instant of its explosion, by a sudden energy of the 

 animal: the effect appears to arise from a compressed 

 elastic fluid, restoring itself to its equilibrium in the same 

 way, and by the same media, as the elastic fluid com- 

 pressed in charged glass. Notwithstanding the weak 

 spring of this electricity, j\Tr. AValsh was able to convey 

 it through a circuit formed from one surface of the 

 animal to the other, by two long brass wires and four 

 persons ; which number, in some of the experiments, 

 was increased even to eight : every person was made to 

 communicate with each other, and the two outermost 

 with the wires, by means of water contained in basins 

 properly disposed between them for that purpose. It will 

 be unnecessary to follow j\Ir. "Walsh's more minute de- 

 tails of these experiments ; and, after all, he observes 

 that the effects produced on these occasions by the tor- 

 pedo, resembled, in every respect, a weak electricity. 

 It was further ascertained that the shocks were much 

 stronger when the fish was taken out of the water than 

 when it was emerged in it ; or, as our author observes, 

 ^' the shocks in water appeared, so far as sensation 

 could decide, not to have near a fourth of the force of 

 those that took place at the surface of the water, nor 

 much more than a fourth of those given when the fish 

 was entirely in the air, on being raised by the hand." 

 Finally, we may observe that this power is possessed, 

 not only by the young torpedo on its birth, but even 

 while it is yet a foetus in the body of the parent animal. 

 This fact was ascertained by Spallanzani, on dissecting 

 a torpedo in a pregnant state, and which contained in 

 its ovarium several roundish eggs of different sizes, and 

 also two perfectly formed foetuses, which, when tried 

 in the usual manner, communicated a very sensible 

 electric shock; and this was still more perceptible 

 when the little animals were insulated by being placed 

 upon a plate of glass. The electricity of the torpedo 

 is altogether voluntary ; and sometimes, if the animal 



