204 Afr. cavendish on the Torpedo. 
fulpended from any thing in contact with the animal 
will not have time to feparate, nor will a fine thread 
luing near its body have time to move towards it, before 
the electricity is diffipated. Accordingly I have been in- 
formed by Dr. Priestley, that in difcharging a battery 
he never could find a pair of pith balls fulpended from 
the difcharging rod to feparate. But, befides, there are 
fcarce any pith balls fo fine, as to feparate when ful- 
pended from a battery fo weakly electrified that its fhock 
will not pafs through a chain, as is the cafe with that of 
the torpedo. 
In order to examine more accurately, how far the 
phenomena of the torpedo would agree with electricity, 
I endeavoured to imitate them by means of the fol- 
lowing apparatus, abcfgde fig. 3. is apiece of wood, 
the part abcde of which is cut into the fhape of the 
torpedo, and is i6| inches long from a to d, and 10J 
broad from b to* e; the part cfgd is 40 inches long, 
and ferves by way of handle, mn mn is a glafs tube 
let into a groove cut in the wood, w w is a piece of wire 
palling through the glafs tube, and foldered at w to a thin 
piece of pewter r r lying flat on the wood, and intended 
to reprefent the upper lurface of the eleClric organs. On 
the other fide of the wood there is placed fuch another 
glafs tube, not reprefented in the figure, with a wire 
palling through it, and foldered to another piece of pew- 
ter of the fame fize and fhape as r r intended to repre- 
fent the lower furface of thofe organs. The whole part 
abcde is covered with a piece of fheep’s fkin leather. 
5 In 
1 
