Cause a twitching of the muscles,
which is propagated from the part that rests on the electric organs,
as far as the elbow. We seem to feel, at every stroke, an internal
vibration, which lasts two or three seconds, and is followed by a
painful numbness. Accordingly, the Tamanac Indians call the gymnotus,
in their expressive language, arimna, which means something that
deprives of motion.
The sensation caused by the feeble shocks of an electric eel appeared
to me analogous to that painful twitching with which I have been
seized at each contact of two heterogeneous metals applied to wounds
which I had made on my back by means of cantharides. This difference
of sensation between the effects of electric fishes and those of a
Voltaic battery or a Leyden jar feebly charged has struck every
observer; there is, however, nothing in this contrary to the
supposition of the identity of electricity and the galvanic action of
fishes. The electricity may be the same; but its effects will be
variously modified by the disposition of the electrical apparatus, by
the intensity of the fluid, by the rapidity of the current, and by the
particular mode of action.
In Dutch Guiana, at Demerara for instance, electric eels were formerly
employed to cure paralytic affections.
