PLATE LIII. 
The sea coast of France near Rochelle, and a small spot called the 
Isle of Re, afforded Mr. Walsh an ample opportunity for prose- 
cuting his experiments, the Torpedo being frequent in those places. 
He was restrained by the jealousy of the government, from making 
those experiments where these animals are caught, but he received 
them alive, and in such a state of vigour, as enabled him to proceed 
successfully in his enquiry. With respect to the effect of the Toipedo, 
he observes, 11 it appears to be absolutely electrical, forming its cii- 
cuit through the same conductors with electricity, and being inter- 
cepted by the same nonconductors, as glass and sealing wax. The 
back, and the breast of the animal, appear to be in different states 
of electricity, I mean in particular the upper, and lower surfaces of 
the two assemblages of pliant cylinders, engraved in the work of 
Lorenzini. By the knowledge of this circumstance, we have been 
able to direct his shocks, though they were small, through a ciieuit 
of four persons all feeling them, and likewise through a considerable 
length of wire, held by two insulated persons, one touching his 
lower surface, and the other his upper. W hen the wire was ex- 
changed for glass or sealing wax, no effect could be obtained, but as 
soon as it was resumed, the two persons became liable to the shock. 
These experiments have been varied many ways, and repeated times 
without number, and they all determined the choice of conductors, 
to be the same in the Torpedo, as in the Leyden phial. The sen- 
sations likewise, occasioned by the one and the other, in the human 
frame, are precisely similar. Not only the shock, but the numbing 
sensation, which the animal sometimes dispenses, expiessed inFiench 
by the words engourdissement and fourmillemefit, may be exactly 
imitated with the phial, by means of Lane’s electrometer ; the regu- 
lating rod of which, to produce the latter effect, must be brought 
almost into contact with the prime conductor, which joins the phial. 
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