302 TORPEDO PvAY. 



first person put a finger of one hand in the basin in 

 which the wire was immersed, and a finger of the 

 other hand in a second basin. The second person 

 put a finger of one hand in this last basin, and a 

 finger of the other hand in the third ; and so on 

 successively, till the five persons communicated 

 with one another by the water in the basins. In 

 the last basin one end of the second wire was im- 

 mersed; and with the other end Mr. Walsh touched 

 the back of the Torpedo, when the five persons felt 

 a commotion which differed in nothing fi^om that 

 of the Leyden experiment, except in the degree of 

 force. Mr. ¥/alsh, who was not in the circle of 

 conduction, received no shock. This experiment 

 was repeated several times, even with eight per- 

 sons ; and always with the same success. The 

 action of the Torpedo is communicated by the same 

 mediums as that of the electric fluid. The bodies 

 which intercept the action of the one, intercept 

 likewise the action of the other. The effects pro- 

 duced by the Torpedo resemble in every respect a 

 weak electricity. This exhibition of the electric 

 powers of the Torpedo, before* the Academy of La 

 Rochelle, was at a meeting, held for the purpose 

 in my apartments, on the twenty-second of July 

 1772, and stands registered in the Journals of the 

 Academy/' 



Mr. Walsh, in his paper on this subject, in the 

 Philosophical Transactions, thus continues the ac- 

 count of these interesting experiments. " The 

 effect of the animal, in the above experiments, was 

 transmitted through as great an extent and varietj'- 



