130 
SHOCKS OF THE OYMNOTUS. 
accordingly separated with care from tlie rest of the eel. 
The presence of gymnoti is also considered as the principal 
cause of the want of fish in the ponds and pools oi the 
Llanos. They, however, kill many more than they devour : 
and the Indians told us, that when young alligators and 
gymnoti are caught at the same time in very strong nets, 
the latter never show the slightest trace of a wound, 
because they disable the young alligators before they are 
attacked by 'them. All the inhabitants of the waters dread 
the society of the gymnoti. Lizards, tortoises, and frogs, 
seek pools where they are secure from the electric action. 
It became necessary to change the direction oi a road 
near Uritucu, because the electric eels were so numerous 
in one river, that they every year killed a great number ot 
mules, as they forded the water with their burdens. 
Though in the present state of our knowledge we may 
flatter ourselves with having thrown some light on the 
extraordinary effects of electric fishes, yet a vast number ot 
physical and physiological researches still remain to be made. 
The brilliant results which chemistry has obtained by means 
of the Voltaic battery, have occupied all observers, and turned 
attention for some time from the examinations of the phe- 
nomena of vitality. Let us hope that these phenomena, the 
most awful and the most mysterious of all, will in their turn 
occupy the earnest attention of natural philosophers, this 
hope will be easily realized if they succeed in procurmg 
anew living gymnoti in some one of the great capitals o 
Europe. The discoveries that will be made on the electro- 
motive apparatus of these fish, much more energetic, anc 
more easy of preservation, than the torpedos,* will extern 
* In order to investigate the phenomena of the living electromotive 
apparatus in its greatest simplicity, and not to mistake for genera 
conditions circumstances which depend on the degree ot energy of the 
electric organs, it is necessary to perform the experiments on those 
electrical fishes most easily tamed. If the gymnoti were not known, «« 
mmht suppose, from the observations made on torpedos, that fishes can 
not give their shocks from a distance through very thick strata ot water, 
or through a bar of iron, without forming a circuit. Mr. W ill.amson 
felt strong shocks when he held only one hand in the water, and thu 
hand, without touching the gymnotus, was placed between it and W 
small fish towards which the stroke was directed from ten or 
indies diatance. (Philosophical Transactions, vol. lxv, pp. 99 and IW 
