260 
DR. DAVY’S ACCOUNT OF SOME EXPERIMENTS 
research as great as at any former period of his life. At his request, the fol¬ 
lowing morning torpedos were obtained from the fish-market, and I amused 
him, day after day, with the results of my dissections, till his complaint ac¬ 
quiring an aggravated form, and threatening speedy dissolution, he was unable 
to attend to them. I then discontinued the inquiry, and till a few months 
ago, I have not had an opportunity of renewing it. The results which I have 
obtained I shall now have the honour of submitting to the Royal Society. 
The experiments which I shall first detail on the living fish have been made 
entirely at Malta, and under very advantageous circumstances; for, residing 
during the summer season close to the sea, I have been able to obtain torpedos 
fresh from the water, and in a state of great activity. 
1. Experiments on the Electricity of the Torpedo. 
My brother was very desirous of trying the effect of the shock of the tor¬ 
pedo on a needle placed in a spiral wire. The result, he was of opinion, 
would be conclusive as to the nature of its electricity. Anxious to make this 
trial, I had an apparatus in readiness, which, with common electricity, I had 
found to answer extremely well. It consisted of a fine copper spiral wire, 
about one inch and a half long, and one tenth of an inch in diameter, con¬ 
taining about one hundred and eighty convolutions, and weighing about four 
grains and a half. This was inserted into a glass tube, just large enough to 
receive it, and secured by corks. The wire passed through the cork at each 
end, and was connected with strong wires with glass handles for the purpose 
of contact. The wire which was intended to be applied to the under surface 
of the fish was one twenty-fifth of an inch in diameter; that intended for the 
upper surface was stiffer, being one fourteenth of an inch in diameter, and its 
greater strength was useful, as it was necessary to employ it occasionally with 
some force to rouse the fish when averse to give a shock. 
The first trial I made with this apparatus was successful. The fish used 
was a small one, about six inches long ; it had been just caught in a hand-net, 
and immediately put into salt water, and was very active. A needle, perfectly 
free from magnetism, was introduced into the spiral, and there confined by the 
corks, and the spiral was carefully connected with the insulated wires for con¬ 
tact. The fish for the experiment was placed in a glass basin, and was barely 
