357 



in the Spanish colonies which I visited ; but I 

 can assert, that, after having* made experiments 

 during four hours successively with gymnoti, 

 Mr. Bonpland and myself felt till the next day a 

 debility in the muscles, a pain in the joints, and 

 a general uneasiness, which was the effect of a 

 strong irritation of the nervous system. 



Gymnoti are neither charged conductors, nor 

 batteries, nor electromotive apparatuses, the 

 shock of which is received every time they are 

 touched with one hand, or when both hands are 

 applied to form a conducting circle between two 

 heterogeneous poles. The electric action of the 

 fish depends entirely on it's will ; whether be- 

 cause it do not keep it's electric organs always 

 charged ; or by the secretion of some fluid, or 

 by any other means alike mysterious to us, it be 

 capable of directing the action of it's organs to 

 aa external object. We often tried, both insu- 

 lated and uninsulated, to touch the fish, with- 

 out feeling the least shock. When Mr. Bon- 

 pland held it by the head, or by the middle of 

 the body, while I held it by the tail, and, stand- 

 ing on the moist ground, did not take each other's 

 hand, one of us received shocks, which the other 

 did not feel. It depends upon the gymnotus to 

 act toward the point, where it finds itself the 

 most strongly irritated. The discharge is then 

 made at one point only, and not at the neigh- 

 bouring points. If two persons touch the belly 



