359 



extremely tame. When they had been made 

 to fast a long time, they killed from afar small 

 fishes put into the tub. They acted at a distance ; 

 that is to say, their electrical stroke passed 

 through a very thick stratum of water. We 

 need not be surprised, that what was observed in 

 Sweden, on a single gymnotus only, we could 

 not see on a great number of individuals in their 

 native country. The electric action of animals 

 being a vital action, and subject to their will, 

 it does not depend solely on their state of health 



(1801), p. 122—156. u The gymnotus sent from Surinam to 

 Mr. Norderling at Stockholm, lived more than four months 

 in a state of perfect health. It was twenty-seven inches 

 long; and the shocks it gave were so violent, especially in 

 the air, that I found scarcely any means of protecting myself 

 from it by nonconductors, in transporting the fish from one 

 place to another. It's stomach being very small, it ate only 

 a little at a time, but often. It approached living fish, send- 

 ing them (from afar) a shock, the energy of which was pro- 

 portionate to the size of the prey. The gymnotus was seldom 

 mistaken in it's judgment ; one single stroke was almost always 

 sufficient to overcome the resistance (the obstacles, which the 

 strata of water, more or less thick according to the distances, 

 opposed to the electrical current). When very much pressed 

 by hunger, it directed the shocks sometimes also against the 

 person, who daily brought it's food of boiled meat not sea-i 

 soned. Persons afflicted with rheumatism came to touch it 

 in hopes of being cured. They took it at once by the neck 

 and tail : the shocks were in this case stronger, than when 

 touched with one hand only. It lost almost entirely it's 

 electrical power a short time before it's death." 



