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XT. An Account of the Gymnotns Ele(5lricus, or Eledirkal 
Eel, In a Letter from Alexander Garden, M, D, 
F, R, S, to John Ellis, Efq, F, R. S. 
CharIc6-Town, South Carolina, 
Aug. 14, 1774. 
Recide, Feb. 23, Ik p£ \v days fince, I went to fee fome 
very curious fifh, which were brought 
here about nine or ten weeks ago from Surinam ; and I 
was both furprized and delighted to obferve their ftrange 
lhape, and experience their wonderful properties. I had 
before received fome vague account of fuch a fifh ; but I 
always thought, that much of what I heard was fabu- 
lous. There are five of thefe fiflies now here, of differ- 
ent fizes, from two feet in length to three feet eight 
2 inches.. The following defcription was made out from 
the longeft and largefi:. It might have been much more 
accurate, if there had been a poflibility of handling the 
fifh, and examining it leifurely ; or if I could have had a 
dead fpecimen, as many things relating to the internal 
and external fi:ru(fture could in that cafe have been more 
exa6Uy afcertained. But this fifli hath the amazing -j 
power of giving fo fudden and fo violent a fliock to I 
any perfon that touches it, that there is, I think, an ab- ! 
folute impoifibility of ever examining accurately a living | 
fpecimen, | 
