TORPEDO. 
215 
itself to its equilibrium in the same way, and by 
the same medium, as the elastic fluid compressed in 
a charged glass. Notwithstanding the weak spring 
of this animal electricity, Mr. Walsh was able, 
at the public exhibitions of his experiments at 
Rochelle, to convey it through brass wires inter- 
rupted by four persons, which number at times was 
increased even to eight. M. Seignette, mayor of 
Rochelle, and one of the secretaries of its aca- 
demy, has thus related this curious experiment in 
the French gazettes for the month of October in the 
same year : 
“ A live torpedo was placed on the table. Round 
another table stood five persons insulated. Two 
brass wires, each eighteen feet long, were suspended 
from the ceiling by silken strings : one of these wires 
rested on the wet napkin on which the fish lay ; 
the other end was immersed in a basin full of water 
placed on the second table, on which stood four 
other basins likewise full of water. The first person 
put a finger of one hand in the basin in which the 
wire was immersed, and a finger of the other hand 
in a second basin. The second person put a finger 
of one hand in this last basin, and a finger of the 
other hand in the third ; and so on successively, 
till the five persons communicated with one another 
by the water in the basins. In the last basin one 
end of the second wire was immersed ; and with the 
other end Mr. Walsh touched the back of the tor- 
pedo, when the five persons felt a commotion which 
