746 
ELECTRICAL ANIMALS. 
One of the first discoveries was, that some creatures are so strongly 
electrified naturally, as to have it in their power to give a strong 
shock at pleasure, capable of destroying any small animal that comes 
near them. Of these, however, only four, and those of the aquatic 
kind, have yet been observed, viz. the gymnotus electricus, the torpedo, 
the silurus elcctricus, and a fish found on the coast of the Comoro 
islands. 
The gymnotus has the astonishing property of giving the electric 
shock to any person, or number of persons, either by the immediate 
touch with the hand, or by the mediation of any metallic conductor; 
and a person who kept some of them told Mr. Garden, that they had 
this property much stronger when first caught than afterwards. 
The person,” says he, “ who is to receive the shock, must take 
the fish with both hands, at some considerable distance asunder, so 
as to form the communication, otherwise he will not receive it; — at 
least, I never saw any one shocked from taking hold of it with one 
hand only, though some have assured us that they were shocked by 
laying one hand on it. I myself have taken hold of the largest with 
one hand often, without receiving a shock ; but I never touched it 
with both hands at a little distance asunder, without feeling a smart 
shock. I have often remarked, that when it is taken hold of with one 
hand, and the other is put into the water over its body without 
touching it, the person received a smart shock ; and I have observed 
the same effect follow when a number joined bands, the person at 
one extremity of the circle taking hold of, or touching the fish, and 
the person at the other extremity putting his hand into the water 
over the body of the fish. The shock was communicated through 
the whole circle as smartly as if both the extreme persons had touched 
the fish. In this it seems to differ widely from the torpedo, or else 
we are much misinformed of the manner in which the benumbing 
effect of that fish is communicated. The shock which the gymno- 
tus gives, seems to be wholly electrical, and all the phenomena or 
properties of it exactly resemble those of the electrica aurea of our 
atmosphere, when collected, as far as they are discoverable, from the 
several trials made on this fish. This stroke is communicated by the 
same conductors, and intercepted by the interposition of the same 
original electrics, or electrics per se, as they used to be called. The 
keeper of this fish informed me, that he caught several of the species 
in Surinam river, a great way up, beyond where the salt water reaches, 
and that they are a fresh water fish only. He says that they are 
eaten, and by some people esteemed a great delicacy. They live 
on fish, worms, or any animal food, if it is cut small so that they can 
swallow it. When small fishes are thrown into the water, they first 
give them a shock, which kills or stupifies them ; they can then 
swallow them easily, and without any trouble. If one of these small 
fishes, after it is shocked, and to all appearance dead, be taken out of 
the vessel where the electrical fish is, and put into other water, it 
will soon revive again. If a large fish, that they can swallow, be 
thrown into the water when they are hungry, they give him some 
smart shocks till he is apparently dead, and then try to swallow or 
suck him in ; but, after several attempts, finding he is too large, 
