PLATE LI II. 
It is a singularity, that the Torpedo when insulated, should be able 
to give us insulated likewise, forty or fifty successive shocks, from 
nearly the same part ; and these, with little, if any diminution of 
their force. Each effort of the animal to give the shock, is con- 
veniently accompanied by a depression of his eyes, by which even 
his attempts to give it to the non-conductors can be observed : in 
respect to the rest of his body, he is in a great degree motionless, 
though not entirely so. I have taken no less than fifty, of the 
above-mentioned successive shocks, from an insulated Torpedo, in 
the space of a minute and a half. All our experiments confirm, 
tnat the electricity of the Torpedo, is condensed in the instant of its 
explosion, by a sudden energy of the animal ; anil as there is no 
gradual accumulation, or retention of it, as in case of charged 
glass, it is not at all surprising, that no signs of attraction or repul- 
sion, were perceived in the pith balls. In short, the effect of the 
Torpedo appears to arise from a compressed elastic fluid, restoring 
itself to its equilibrium, in the same way, and by the same mediums, 
as the elastic fluid compressed in charged glass. The skin of the 
animal, bad conductor as it is, seems to be a better conductor of 
his electricity, than the thinnest plate of elastic air. Notwithstand- 
ing the weak spring of the Torpedinal electricity, I was able, in the 
public exhibitions of my experiments at La Rochelle, to convey it 
through a circuit formed from one surface of the animal to the 
other, by two long brass wires, and four persons, which number, 
at times, was enci eased even to eight. The several persons were 
made to communicate with each other, and the two outermost with 
the wires, by means of water contained in the basons, properly 
disposed between them for that purpose ; each person dipping his t 
hands in the nearest basin, connectively with his neighbour on either 
side.” 
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