G Y M N 
Senegal in Africa, and in general in hot climates; but 
it is plentiful alfo in North America. In New York and 
Pennfylvania, it is called numbing-ecl ; and numbjijk in 
South Carolina. It delights in clear water, and there¬ 
fore frequents ftony places at the mouths of ftreams; 
and thqnce pafles up into rivers and lakes. It comes 
often to the furface to breathe, and then ejeCts a bubble 
of air. It foon dies if it cannot frequently refpfr'e the 
frefh air, as i3 the cafe when caught in a net, or on a 
hook at the bottom of the water. The flefli is fat and 
well-tafted ; that of the back is firm, but full of bones ; 
that of the belly is foft, and mucilaginous. It is eaten 
both by the negroes and the whites. Dr. Garden ob- 
ferves, that it is caught in the Surinam river a great 
way up, beyond the reach of the tide. 
The property of this fifh to communicate an electrical 
fhock, has with great reafon excited the attention of 
natiiralifts. Richer, who in 1671 was fent to Cayenne 
by the Paris academy to make mathematical and aftro- 
nomical obfervations, firft difcovered that this eel com¬ 
municated a confiderable fhock, whether touched by the 
hand, or with a ftick, &c. More than feventy years 
elapfed, before any thing further was known concerning 
this fifii. M. de la Condamine,' in his Voyage to South 
America, publifhed in 1743, fpeaks of a fifh called 
j burague, found in the river of the Amazons, which pro¬ 
duced the fame effeCt: this was doubtlefs the fame fifh. 
But Mr. Ingram, of Tower-hill, London, in a letter dated 
February 1750, gave a clearer defcription of the eleCtri- 
cal properties of this fifh : he conceived it to have an 
eleCtrical atmofphere around it; for, as he was about 
to touch it with a piece of iron, he received fuclra ftrong. 
fhock, without touching it, that he was obliged to drop 
the iron he held in his hand. 
Gravefande was the firft who difcovered that-the fhock 
proceeded from electrical matter : he writes from Rio 
Efiequibo, November 22, 1755, t0 profeffor Allemand, 
“ This fifh produces the fame effeCt which I have felt at 
your houfe in touching the Leyden phial.; with this dif¬ 
ference, that no Jpark is fun, though the fhock is much 
ftronger; for, if the fifh be pretty large, it certainly 
knocks down thofe who touch it, and the fhock is felt 
through the whole body.” More recent experiments of 
Mr. Flagg confirm that the fhock from this fifh may be 
©ccafionally ftronger, and be longer felt, than that from 
the eleCtric phial: he fays that a negro who was afraid 
to touch a ftrong one, was at length deluded by a trick 
of his companions; he immediately loft the ufe of both 
arms, which he did not recover for fome years after¬ 
wards. Several naturalifts, however, continued to doubt 
the exiftence of the eleCtric matter, as appears from va¬ 
rious academical papers, fo late as the year 1762, the 
writers of which attributed the fhock fb certain mufcles 
fimilar to what Reaumur pretended to have difcovered 
in the torpedo in 1714. But Vander,Lott confirmed the 
animal eleCtricity of this fifh by feveral experiments;' 
for he obferved, that, by touching it with various me¬ 
tals, a confiderable fhock was felt, but none at all when 
touched with wax, &c. Fermin went farther: he ob¬ 
ferved that fourteen Haves, holding each other by the 
hand, felt the fhock at the fame time, if the firft touched 
the fifh with a ftick, and the laft put his hand in the 
water. The experiments of Bancroft, and the more re¬ 
cent ones of Bryant, place the matter paft all doubt. 
Bryant found that he received a ftrong fhock when he 
touched the fifh with the point of a fword, but none at 
all when the point of the fword was covered with wax. 
He made experiments with.glafs bottles : he placed the 
veflel containing the live fifh upon thefe bottles, and the 
fhocks were as ftrong as when- the water was upon the 
ground; whence he concludes, that the animal muft 
have a great portion of electric matter naturally inhe¬ 
rent, or that it is continually recruited' by the water it- 
felf. He obferved alfo that the fifh would communicate 
O T U S. 139 
fhocks through the tub it was contained in; for, having 
ordered a Have to pour the water out of the tub of cafk* 
he received fuch a fhock as occafioned him to let it fall; 
he then brought another negro, who received alfo a 
very ftrong fhock. But it muft be obferved, that thjs 
fifh was very large, and recently caught. Dr. Gardhft 
was told, that fome were feen in Surinam river upwards 
of twenty feet long, whofe fhock proved inftant death 
to any perfon that unluckily received it. Mr. Flagg 
obferved, that fome negroes would touch the electrical 
eel without receiving any fhock;.and he fays that a 
lady in a heCtic fever touched it without effeCt, and he 
concluded that the fever was the caufe.of her receiving 
no fhock ; but Bloch rather fuppofes that the fifh was 
at that time exhaufted, and incapable of giving fhocks. 
Of other experiments, the moft confiderable are thofe of 
Williamfon at Philadelphia in 1773, and of Dr. Garden 
at Charleftown, in 1774. It would be tedious to recite 
all the minutiae of thefe experiments. Bloch, after 
detailing them at length, draws the following conclu¬ 
sions : 1. That this fifh is capable of communicating a 
painful fenfation to all creatures that approach it. z. 
That this effeCt depends on the will of the animal, fo 
that it may be ftronger or weaker, according to the ftate 
of the fifh. 3. That the fhock or pain'which it commu¬ 
nicates is not an immediate effeCt of the motion of cer¬ 
tain mufcles in the eel, fince it can produce this effect 
at a certain diftance, and fince it may be extended by 
means of certain fubftances, while other fubflances of 
equal hardnefs and tenfion will not communicate or ex. 
tend the fhock. 4. That the fhock is the effeCt of a 
fluid matter, emanating from the fifh. 5. That thisema- 
nation from the electrical eel lias the fame effeCt upon 
the hu^an frame as ordinary eleCtricity, and produces 
the fame fenfation; that it kills or ftuns animals in the 
fame manner. Laftiy, that all the conductors of ordi¬ 
nary eleCtricity aCt funilarly upon this, and vice verfa. 
So that we may conclude with confidence, that this ani¬ 
mal is provided with real eleCtric matter. Several ex. 
periments, however, have been made, which feem to 
contradict each other. Ingram fays he felt the fhock 
before he touched the water; and Condamine, that he 
felt it by touching the water with a ftick. The firft, on 
the contrary, felt no fhock when he touched it with a 
ftick ; Vander Lott felt none when he touched it with 
lead or tin; and Williamfon, Hey den, and a young 
negro, could lift the fifh out of the water without re¬ 
ceiving any fhock. But thefe contradictions will be re¬ 
conciled ifweconfider the following particulars : i.That 
the fifh, when at reft, communicates no fhock. 2. That, 
when the fifh is angry, the fhock is the ftronger, the 
more it is touched or irritated. 3. That one recently 
caught produces the effeCt in a much ftronger manner 
than when it lias been long kept. 4. That it commu¬ 
nicates the fhock by the intervention of thofe bodies 
which are the conductors of ordinary electricity, but' 
not by eleCtric bodies. 5. That this fifh can communi¬ 
cate a fhock to a certain diftance without being touched. 
6. If the fifh be feized by the back with both hands at 
once, and preffed hard, it gives no fhock. 7. The fifh, 
when difordered, produces very flight fhocks or none at 
all ; and none when it is dead. 8. It can kill or ltun 
fifties witholit touching them. 
Hence we may conclude with certainty, 1. That the 
fhock is produced by an eleCtric matter. 2. That the 
emanation of this matter depends on the will of the fifh, 
or on its being in a proper ftate of healtli; which have 
occafioned the different effeCts related in various expe¬ 
riments. 3. That this animal eleCtric matter is ftill of 
a nature different from ordinary eleCtricity, otherwife it 
muft always follow the conducting bodies : befides, 
damp weather and wet bodies increafe the effect of this 
eleCtricity, while they injure ordinary eleCtricity. 4. 
That the fifh produces within itfelf, as it were, by its- 
' own 
