PLATE LIII. 
the Torpedo had been considered in all ages as an object of consider- 
able interest and curiosity. 
But when we reflect upon the infant state of natural philosophy in 
those early ages, the testimony of those writers must be admitted 
with caution. The ancients knew this Fish, and they also knew the 
benumbing powers which nature has endowed it with, but its history 
was still involved in fable. To the united exertions of talents, and 
assiduous investigation, which in a pre-eminent degree distinguished 
the former century, we are indebted for the only authentic particulars 
respecting it, that can be relied upon in confidence. The accurate 
Borelli, and Lorenzini, and after them the indefatigable Reaumur, 
opened the way to an accurate enquiry into the electric pro- 
perties of the animal by dissecting it, and pointing out in a per- 
spicuous manner, the organs through whose medium this property 
is exerted. To say that the cause and effects arising from the shocks 
of the Torpedo were however proved to be electric by either of those 
writers, would be erroneous. The credit of this discovery is due to 
the memory of our own countryman, Mr. Walsh, who, by a series 
of experiments before unattempted, was enabled to demonstrate 
the fact. It was by the fortunate application of the newly detected 
principles of eleclricity, as a cause to the effects which it was already 
known this animal possessed, that Mr. Walsh was more happy in his 
speculations than his predecessors. He was the first to reason upon 
the analogy between the powers of electricity, and the inherent elec- 
tricity of this creature. His experiments were pursued with the 
greatest industry, and in the sequel proved both satisfactory and con- 
clusive. But Mr. Walsh was himself disposed, with becoming can- 
dour, to allow every honour to his friend Dr. Franklin, whose im- 
portant discoveries on electricity had laid the foundation upon which 
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