( 194 ) 



never difcover any fenfation from touch- 

 ing him with oak, a£h, or indeed any 

 kinds of wood fwimming in water, 

 which I have tried. What affinity there 

 may be between the fhock of the Tor- 

 porific Eel, and that of the Torpedo, I 

 am unable to determine with certainty, 

 having never felt the latter > but from 

 all the particulars which I have beea 

 able to colled: relative thereto, I think 

 it is pretty evident, that both are com-* ' 

 municated in the fame manner, and by 

 the fame inftruments. 



Some years fince the celebrated Monf. 

 de Reaumur * communicated to the 

 Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, a 

 Paper, in which he undertook to de-. 

 monftrate, that the fhock of the Tor- 

 pedo was the effed: of aftroke given with 

 great quicknefs to the limb that touched 



* Memoires de PAcademie R ovale des Sci- 

 ences, &c« 17 14, 



