GYMNOTUS ELECTRICUS. 



171 



other of smaller dimensions ; the former separated 

 from the skin by a mass of fat, and resting upon the 

 electric organs, which occupy more than two-thirds 

 of the fish. 



It would be rash to expose one's self to the first 

 shocks of a very large individual, — the pain ana 

 numbness which follow in such a case being ex- 

 tremely violent. When in a state of great weak- 

 ness, the animal produces in the person who touches 

 it a twitching, which is propagated from the hand to 

 the elbow ; a kind of internal vibration lasting two 

 or three seconds, and followed by painful torpidity, 

 being felt after every stroke. The electric energy 

 depends upon the will of the creature, and it directs 

 it towards the point where it feels most strongly 

 irritated. The organ acts only under the immediate 

 influence of the brain and heart ; for when one of 

 them was cut through the middle, the fore -part of 

 the body alone gave shocks. Its action on man is 

 transmitted and intercepted by the same substances 

 that transmit and intercept the electrical current of 

 a conductor charged by a Leyden jar or a Voltaic 

 pile. In the water the shock can be conveyed to 

 a considerable distance. No spark has ever been ob- 

 served to issue from the body of the eel when ex- 

 cited. 



The gymnoti are objects of dread to the natives, 

 and their presence is considered as the principal 

 cause of the want of fish in the pools of the llanos. 

 All the inhabitants of the waters avoid them ; and 

 the Indians asserted that when they take young al- 

 ligators and these animals in the same net, the latter 

 never display any appearance of wounds, because 

 they disable their enemies before they are attacked 

 by them. It became necessary to change the di- 

 rection of a road near Urituco, solely because they 

 were so numerous in a river that they killed many 

 mules in the course of fording it. 



On the 24th March the travellers left Calabozo, 



