372 



several persons form the chain between the su- 

 perior and inferior surface of the organs of the 

 torpedo, the shock is felt only when these per- 

 sons have united their hands. The action is 

 not intercepted, if two persons, who support the 

 torpedo with their right hands, instead of taking 

 one another by the left hand, plunge each a me- 

 tallic point into a drop of water placed on an 

 insulating substance. On substituting flame for 

 the drop of water, the communication is inter- 

 rupted, and is only reestablished, as in the gym- 

 noti, when the two points immediately touch 

 each other in the interior of the flame. 



We are very far, unquestionably, from having 

 revealed all the secrets of the electrical action 

 of fishes, which is modified by the influence of 

 the brain and the nerves ; but the experiments, 

 which we have just related, are sufficient to 

 prove, that these fishes act by a concealed elec- 

 tricity, and by electromotive apparatuses of a 

 peculiar construction, which are recharged with 

 extreme rapidity. Mr. Volta admits, that the 

 discharges of the contrary electricities in the 

 torpedoes and the gymnoti are made by their 

 own skin ; and that, when we touch them with 

 one hand only, or by means of a metallic point, 

 we feel the effect of a lateral shock, the electrical 

 current not being directed solely the shortest 

 way. When a Leyden vial is placed on a wet 

 woollen cloth, which is a bad conductor, and 



