304 



TORPEDO RAY. 



" A large Torpedo, very liberal of his shocks, 

 being held with both hands by his electric organs 

 above and below, was briskly plunged into water 

 to the depth of a foot, and instantly raised an equal 

 height in air; and was thus continually plunged 

 and raised, as quick as possible, for the space of a 

 minute. In the instant his lower surface touched 

 the water in his descent, he always gave a violent 

 shock, and another, still more violent, in his ascent ; 

 both which shocks, but particularly the last, were 

 accompanied with a writhing in his body, as if 

 meant to force an escape. Besides these two shocks 

 from the surface of the water, which may yet be 

 considered as delivered in the air, he constantly 

 gave at least two when wholly in the air, and as 

 constantly one, and sometimes two, when wholly 

 in the water. The shocks in water appeared, as 

 far as sensation could decide, not to have near a 

 fourth of the force of those which took place at the 

 surface of the water, nor much more than a fourth 

 of tho5e intirely in air.*' 



The shocks received in a certain time were not, 

 on this occasion, counted by a watch, as they had 

 been on a former, when fifty were delivered in a 

 minute and half, by the animal in an insulated 

 and unagitated state : but from the quickness with 

 which the immersions were made, it may be pre-* 

 sumed there were full twenty of these in a minute ; 

 from whence the number of shocks in that time 

 must have amounted to above an hundred. This 

 experiment therefore, while it discovered the com- 

 parative force between a shock in water and one 



