356 



an electrical eel appeared to me analogous to 

 that painful twitching, with which I have been 

 seized at each contact of two heterogeneous 

 metals applied to wounds, which I had made on 

 my back by means of cantharides *. This dif- 

 ference of sensation between the effects of elec- 

 trical fishes and those of the pile or a Leyden 

 vial weakly charged has struck every observer ; 

 there is however nothing in this contrary to the 

 supposition of the identity of electricity and the 

 galvanic action of fishes. The electricity may 

 be the same ; but it's effects will be variously 

 modified by the disposition of the electrical 

 apparatus, by the intensity of the fluid, by the 

 rapidity of the current, and by a particular 

 mode of action. 



In Dutch Guyana, at Demerary for instance, 

 electrical eels were formerly employed to cure 

 the paralytic. At a time when the physicians 

 of Europe had great confidence in the effects of 

 electricity, a surgeon of Essequibo, Mr. Van 

 der Lott, published in Holland a treatise on the 

 medical properties of the gymnoti. These elec- 

 trical cures are found among the savages of 

 America, as well as among the Greeks. We are 

 told by Scribonius Largus, Galen, and Diosco- 

 rides, that torpedoes cure the headach and the 

 gout. I did not hear of this species of remedy 



* Ferwche ueber die gereizte Muskelfaser, vol. i, p. 323—329. 



