LIVING  ELECTRIC  FISHES  AS  SHOCK  MACHINES. 
41 
M,  Velpean  proposed  a  further  condemnation  of  amylene  on 
the  part  of  the  Academy ;  for,  from  the  experiments  even  of  the 
reporter,  it  was  evident  that  amelyne  is  more  difficult  to  manage, 
and  more  dangerous  in  its  results.  In  the  recent  case  of  death 
from  it,  there  were  not  the  extenuating  circumstances  adduced 
for  chloroform  or  ether,  such  as  the  want  of  skill  or  experience 
of  the  manipulator,  since  it  was  the  inventor  himself  who  directed 
the  procedure.  « I  maintain  that  a  substance  which  in  so  short 
a  time,  and  in  the  hands  of  him  who  recommends  it,  is  dangerous 
to  such  a  point,  ought  not  to  be  permitted  to  be  employed ;  and 
I  propose  that  the  Academy  formally  reject  it." 
M.  Larrey  observed  that  he  completely  agreed  with  M.  Vel- 
peau, and  he  should  have  thought  that  M.  Giraldejs,  after  having 
been  present  at  Dr.  Snow's  last  accident,  would  have  somewhat 
modified  his  ideas  upon  the  subject. 
M.  Jobert  added,  that  when  amylene  is  administered  on  a 
sponge,  anaesthesia  sometimes  cannot  be  produced  for  half  or 
three-quarters  of  an  hour.  If  Charriere's  apparatus  be  em- 
ployed, it  is  rapidly  induced  ;  but  at  the  expense  of  serious  ac- 
cidents. It  differs  from  chloroform,  in  that  the  insensibility  it 
induces  is  instantaneous  and  not  progressive.  It  produces  an 
important  modification  of  the  blood — London  Pharm.  Journ., 
Oct.  1,  1857,  from  Moniteur  des  ffip.,  No.  100. 
ON  THE  EMPLOYMENT  OF  THE  LIVING  ELECTKIC  FISHES  AS 
MEDICAL  SHOCK  MACHINES. 
By  Prof.  G.  Wilson. 
The  author  stated  that,'  in  prosecuting  researches  into  the 
early  history  of  the  electric  machine,  he  did  not  at  first  contem- 
plate going  further  back  than  the  seventeenth  century,  or  com- 
mencing with  any  earlier  instrument  than  Otto  Guericke's  sulphur 
globe  of  1670.  His  attention,  however,  had  been  incidentally 
directed  to  the  employment  of  the  living  torpedo  as  a  remedial 
agent  by  the  ancient  Greek  and  Roman  physicians ;  and  he  now 
felt  satisfied  that  a  living  electric  fish  was  alike  the  earliest  and 
the  most  familiar  electric  instrument  employed  by  mankind.  In 
proof  of  the  antiquity  of  the  practice,  he  adduced  the  testimony 
of  Galen,  Dioscorides,  Scribonius,  and  Asclepiades,  whose  works 
