C 462 ] 
TatisfaCtory I can at prefent offer, fince the notes I 
made of the experiments themfelves remain nearly, 
I am forry to fay it, in that crude and bulky date 
in which you had the trouble to read them. 
Letter from Mr. Walsh to Dr. Franklin, dated 
la Rochelle, 12th July 1772. 
“ It is with particular fatisfa&ion I make to you 
** my firft communication, that the effeCt of the 
“ Torpedo appears to be ablolutely electrical ; by 
** forming its circuit through the fame conductors 
“ with eledtricity, for indance metals, and water ; 
“ and by being intercepted by the fame non-con- 
« f duCtors, for inftance glafs, and fealing-wax. I 
<c will not at prefent trouble you with the detail of 
(f our experiments, efpecially as we are daily ad- 
<( vancing in them ; but only obferve, that we have 
w difcovered the back and breaft of the animal to be 
M in different dates of electricity : I mean in par- 
" ticular the upper and lower furfaces of thofe two 
affemblages of pliant cylinders, of which you 
“ have feen engravings in Lorenzini *. By the 
knowledge of this circumftance we have been 
sc able to direCt his fhocks, though they were very 
st fmall, through a circuit of four perfons, all feel- 
ing them 5 likewife through a co ifiderable length 
(f of wire held by two infulated perfons, one touching 
his lower furface, and the other his upper. When 
* Obfervazioni intorno a!Ie Torpedini di Stef. Lorenzini 
1678. 
Redi appears to be the firft who remarked thefe fingular parts 
the Torpedo in j 666, Franc. Redi, Exper, Nat. 
“ the 
