Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Mr. Williamson
Has Felt Strong Shocks When He Held Only One Hand In The Water, And
This Hand, Without Touching The Gymnotus, Was Placed Between It And
The Small Fish Towards Which The Stroke Was Directed From Ten Or
Fifteen Inches Distance.
Philosophical Transactions volume 65 pages 99
and 108.
When the gymnotus was enfeebled by bad health, the lateral
shock was imperceptible; and in order to feel the shock, it was
necessary to form a chain, and touch the fish with both hands at once.
Cavendish, in his ingenious experiments on an artificial torpedo, had
well remarked these differences, depending on the greater or less
energy of the charge. Philosophical Transactions 1776 page 212.) It
will perhaps be found that, in most animals, every contraction of the
muscular fibre is preceded by a discharge from the nerve into the
muscle; and that the mere simple contact of heterogeneous substances
is a source of movement and of life in all organized beings. Did an
ingenious and lively people, the Arabians, guess from remote
antiquity, that the same force which inflames the vault of Heaven in
storms, is the living and invisible weapon of inhabitants of the
waters? It is said, that the electric fish of the Nile bears a name in
Egypt, that signifies thunder.* (* It appears, however, that a
distinction is to be made between rahd, thunder, and rahadh, the
electrical fish; and that this latter word means simply that which
causes trembling.)
We left the town of Calabozo on the 24th of March, highly satisfied
with our stay, and the experiments we had made on an object so worthy
of the attention of physiologists. I had besides obtained some good
observations of the stars; and discovered with surprise, that the
errors of maps amounted here also to a quarter of a degree of
latitude. No person had taken an observation before me on this spot;
and geographers, magnifying as usual the distance from the coast to
the islands, have carried back beyond measure all the localities
towards the south.
As we advanced into the southern part of the Llanos, we found the
ground more dusty, more destitute of herbage, and more cracked by the
effect of long drought. The palm-trees disappeared by degrees. The
thermometer kept, from eleven in the morning till sunset, at 34 or 35
degrees. The calmer the air appeared at eight or ten feet high, the
more we were enveloped in those whirlwinds of dust, caused by the
little currents of air that sweep the ground. About four o'clock in
the afternoon, we found a young Indian girl stretched upon the
savannah. She was almost in a state of nudity, and appeared to be
about twelve or thirteen years of age. Exhausted with fatigue and
thirst, her eyes, nostrils, and mouth filled with dust, she breathed
with a rattling in her throat, and was unable to answer our questions.
A pitcher, overturned, and half filled with sand, was lying at her
side. Happily one of our mules was laden with water; and we roused the
girl from her lethargic state by bathing her face, and forcing her to
drink a few drops of wine.
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