PLATE LIII. 
with other fish, into a tub of water, the latter of which did not ap- 
pear to be at all hurt by those associates *. On pressing his thumbs 
upon the upper side of the two soft bodies on each side the head. 
Dr. Ingenhouz, in about the space of a minute or two, felt a sudden 
trembling in the thumbs, which extended no further than the bauds, 
and lasted about two seconds. Sometimes the shock was so strong 
as almost to oblige the hand to let go the fish, and at others was 
scarcely at all perceptible. The Torpedo being suspended by a clean 
and dry silk ribbon, attracted no light bodies, such as pith balls, or 
others put near it. A coated bottle applied to the fish thus suspended, 
did not at all become charged. When the fish gave the shock in the 
dark, he heard no cracking noise, nor could he perceive any sparks. 
When the fish was pinced with the nails, it did not give more, or 
fewer strokes than when not pinced. But by folding its body, or 
fending its right side to the left, the shocks were felt more frequently, 
and every circumstance tended to prove, that those shocks were per- 
fectly voluntary. 
Writers are by no means agreed as to the goodness of this fish, 
as an article for the table. Galen recommends it, because the flesh is 
e asy of digestion, and salutary for persons in ill health, and he also 
tells us, that the living fish applied externally to the head, cures many 
disorders with which that part is sometimes affected. Dioscorides 
s ays, the rheumatism is cured by applying it externally. Eondelet 
does not allow the flesh to be wholesome, assuring us the Prefect of 
* This appears to imply a contradiction to the experiments of M. Reaumur, who con- 
futed a live Torpedo in a bucket of sea-water with a duck for some hours, when the 
latter was found dead, as was concluded, from the reiterated shocks received from the 
Torpedo. 
