[ 4 6 3 } 
“ the wire was exchanged for glafs, or fealing-wax, 
“ no effect could be obtained : but as fbon as it was 
“ refumed, the two perfons became liable to the 
cc fhock. Thefe experiments have been varied many 
cc ways, and repeated times Without number, and 
“ they all determined the choice- of conductors 
cc to be the lame in the Torpedo as in the Ley- 
u den Phial. The fenfa dons like wife, occafioned 
“ by the one and the other in the human frame, are 
“ precifely limilar. Not only the fhock, but the 
“ numbing fenfation which the animal fometimes 
“ difpenfes, expreffed in French by the words en- 
“ gourdijjement and jour mi llement , may be exadlly.imi- 
tc rated with the Phial, by means of Lane’s Eleclro- 
“ meter ; the regulating rod of which, to produce the 
“ latter effeeft, muft be brought almoft into contact 
“ with the prime conductor which joins the Phial. 
u We have not yet perceived any fpark to accompany 
“ the (hock, nor the pith balls to be ever affedted. 
“ Indeed all our trials have been on very feeble 
fubjeefts, wbofe (bock was leldom fen fib !e beyond 
{C the touching finger: I remember but one, of at 
“ leaf! two hundred, that I mylelf muft have re- 
“ ceived, to have extended above the elbow. Per- 
“ haps the Ifle of Re, which we are about to vifit, 
<c may furnilh us with Torpedos fre flier taken and of 
‘ c more vigour, by which a farther infight into thefe 
“ matters may be had. Our experiments have been 
“ chiefly in the air, where the animal was more 
“ open to our examination than in water. It is a 
“ fingularity that the Torpedo, when in Tula ted, 
“ fhould be able- to give to us, infulated like wife, 
“ forty or fifty fuccefiive fhocks from nearly the 
i *-* fame 
y 
