PROCEEDINGS 



OF 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 



1838. No. 36. 



December 6, 1838. 



JOHN W. LUBBOCK, Esq., V.P. and Treas., in the Chair. 



Richard Chamock, Esq., was balloted for, but not elected into 

 the Society. 



The Rev. Philip Kalland, M.A., was balloted for, and duly elect- 

 ed into the Society. 



A paper was in part read, entitled, " Experimental Researches in 

 Electricity." Fifteenth Series. — " Note of the Character and Direc- 

 tion of the Electric Force of the Gymnotus." By Michael Faraday, 

 Esq.,D.C.L., F.R.S., &c. 



December 13, 1838. 

 The MARQUESS of NORTHAMPTON, President, in the Chair. 



The reading of a paper, entitled, "Experimental Researches in 

 Electricity." Fifteenth Series. — " Note of the Character and Direc- 

 tion of the Electric Force of the Gymnotus." By Michael Faraday, 

 Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S., &c., was resumed and concluded. 



The author first briefly refers to what has been done by others in 

 establishing the identity of the peculiar power in the Gymnotus and 

 Torpedo with ordinary electricity, and then in reference to the in- 

 tended conveyance to this country of Gymnoti from abroad, gives 

 the instructions which he himself had received from Baron Humboldt 

 for that purpose. A living Gymnotus, now in the possession of the 

 Proprietors of the Gallery of Science in Adelaide Street, was placed 

 for a time at the disposal of the author for the purpose of research, 

 upon which he proceeded, with suitable apparatus, to compare its 

 power with ordinary and voltaic electricity, and to obtain the direction 

 of the force. Without removing it from the water he was able to ob- 

 tain not only the results procured by others, but the other electrical 

 phenomena required so as to leave no gap or deficiency in the evi- 

 dence of identity. The shock, in very varied circumstances of posi- 

 tion, was procured : the galvanometer affected ; magnets were made ; 

 a wire was heated ; polar chemical decomposition was efi^ected, and 

 the spark obtained. By comp5«^tive experiments made with the 



