ELECTRICAL GYMN0TE. 



43 



ticular, who, during his residence in Surinam, had 

 frequent opportunities of examining the animal, 

 demonstrated by experiment that fourteen slaves, 

 holding each other by the hands, received the shock 

 at the same instant; the first touching the fish with 

 a stick*, and the last dipping his hand into the 

 water in which it was kept. The experiments of 

 Dr. Bancroft were equally satisfactory. After this, 

 viz. about the year 1773, Mr. Williamson, in a 

 letter from Philadelphia to Mr. Walsh, so celebrated 

 for his observations relative to the electricity of the 

 Torpedo, communicated his own highly satisfactory 

 experiments on the Gymnotus. On touching the 

 animal with one hand, in such a manner as to 

 irritate it considerably, while the other was held at 

 a small distance from it in the water, he experienced 

 as strong a shock as from a charged Ley den vial. 

 The shock was also readily communicated through 

 a circle formed by eight or ten persons at once ; 

 the person at one extremity putting his hand in 

 the water, near the fish, while the other touched 

 the animal. It would be tedious to recite all the 

 various modifications of these experiments, and it is 

 sufficient to add, that all conspired to prove the 

 genuine voluntary electricity of the animal ; though 

 occasionally exhibiting some variations from the 

 phenomena of common electricity. It is by this 

 extraordinary faculty that the Gymnotus supports 

 its existence : the smaller fishes and other animals 

 which happen to approach it, being instantly 



* Probably a green or moist one. 



