140 
ELECTRICAL GYMNOTE. 
by different persons on the electric power of the 
gymnote : as they all tend, however, to prove the 
same thing, we shall not dwell upon their variety, 
but merely give the best of them from a paper of 
Dr. Garden’s, inserted in the Philosophical Trans- 
actions. After giving a long and very particular 
description of the external form of this creature, he 
says, u The power it has of giving an electrical 
shock to any person, or to any number of persons 
who join hands together, the extreme person on 
each side touching the fish, is its most singular 
and astonishing property. The five we have here 
(Charles-town, in South Carolina,) are possessed of 
this power in a very great degree, and commu- 
nicate the shock to one person, or to any number 
of persons, either by the immediate touch of the 
fish with the hand, or by the intervention of any 
metalline rod. The keeper says, that when first 
caught, they could give a much stronger shock by 
a metalline conductor than they do at present. 
The person 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 me that 
they were shocked by laying one hand on him. I 
myself have taken hold of the largest with one 
hand often without ever receiving a shock ; but 
1 never touched it with both hands, at a little 
