PLATE LIII. 
his theory was established. This is sufficiently demonstrated in the 
conclusion of one of his letters on the Torpedo, in whjch he compli- 
ments his friend in an unusual strain of animation. “ I rejoice 
(says Mr. Walsh) in addressing these communications to you. He, 
who predicted, and shewed that electricity wings the formidable bolt 
of the atmosphere, will hear with attention, that in the deep it speeds 
an humbler bolt, silent and invisible: He, who analysed the elec- 
trified phial, will hear with pleasure that its laws prevail in animate 
phials : He, who by reason became an electrician, will hear with 
reverence of an instinctive electrician*, gifted in his birth with a. 
wonderful apparatus, and with the skill to use it.” Phil. Trans. 
The paper communicated by Mr. Walsh to the Royal Society in 
the year 1773, upon the subject of the Torpedo, are extremely 
curious. They embrace a variety of observations that occurred to 
him in the progress of his experiments, the most material of which it 
would be improper to pass over in silence : these we shall select, and 
lay before the reader as nearly as convenient in the language of the 
writer. 
* This is not the only creature endowed by nature with those amazing properties, 
Gymnotut Electricus, or the Electric Ed, possessing the same powers, as does likewise 
Silurus Etectricus, though in a less vigorous degree, and perhaps many others not at 
present known may be gifted with a similar means of defence against their enemies. 
A recent French author (Lfties) speaks thus of bodies which possess the inherent princi- 
ples of electricity , — “ Quelque substances naturclles reroivem la vertu llectrique des 
mains de la nature pur des moyens qui nous sont encore inconnus ; piles paroissent con 
stammentdans l’etat flccnique. Telle est une espece de Rate qu’on trouve sur les cotes 
de France, et qui porlc le norn de Tortile, parce quelle engrrardit la main de celui qui 
la touche. I) autres poi sons, tels que le Tremblcur du Niger, et VAwguille de Surirunr, 
jouissent de latnthue propriety.” 
