124 
ABSEXCE OF ATTBaCTJOJT. 
pressing wet sticks of sealing-wax against tlie organs of the 
fish, while the same animal gave me the most violent 
strokes, when excited by means of a metallic rod. hi. Bon- 
pland received shocks, when carrying a. gymnotus on two 
cords of the fibres of the palm-tree, which appeared to us 
extremely dry. A strong discharge makes its way through 
very imperfect conductors. Perhaps also the obstacle which 
the conductor presents renders the discharge more painful. 
I touched the gymnotus with a wet pot of brown clay, 
without effect ; yet I received violent shocks when I carried 
the gymnotus in the same pot, because the contact was 
greater. 
When two persons, insulated or otherwise, hold each, 
other’s hands, and only one of these persons touches the 
fish with the hand, either naked or armed with metal, the 
shock is most commonly felt by both at once. However, it 
sometimes happens that, in the most severe shocks, the 
person who comes into immediate contact with the fish 
alone feels them. When the gymnotus is exhausted, or in 
a very reduced state of excitability, and will no longer emit 
strokes on being irritated with one hand, the shocks are 
felt in a very vivid manner, on forming the chain, and em- 
ploying both hands. Even then, however, the electric shock 
takes place only at the will of the animal. Two persons, 
one of whom holds the tail, and the other the head, cannot, 
by joining hands and forming a chain, force the gymnotus to 
dart his stroke. 
Though employing the most delicate electrometers in 
various ways, insulating them on a plate of glass, and receiv- 
ing very strong shocks which passed through the electro- 
meter, 1 could never discover any phenomenon of attraction 
or repulsion. The same observation was made by M. Falil- 
ber" at Stockholm. That philosopher, however, has seen 
an 'electric spark, as Walsh and Ingenhousz had before 
him, in Loudon, by placing the gymnotus in the air, and 
interrupting the conducting chain by two gold leaves pasted 
upon glass, and a line distant from each other. No person, 
or the contrary, has ever perceived a spark issue from the 
body of the fish itself. We irritated it for a long time 
during the night, at Calabozo, in perfect darkness, without 
observing any luminous appearance. Having placed lour 
