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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M. Bonpland Received
Shocks, When Carrying A Gymnotus On Two Cords Of The Fibres Of The
Palm-Tree, Which Appeared To Us Extremely Dry.
A strong discharge
makes its way through very imperfect conductors.
Perhaps also the
obstacle which the conductor presents renders the discharge more
painful. I touched the gymnotus with a wet pot of brown clay, without
effect; yet I received violent shocks when I carried the gymnotus in
the same pot, because the contact was greater.
When two persons, insulated or otherwise, hold each other's hands, and
only one of these persons touches the fish with the hand, either naked
or armed with metal, the shock is most commonly felt by both at once.
However, it sometimes happens that, in the most severe shocks, the
person who comes into immediate contact with the fish alone feels
them. When the gymnotus is exhausted, or in a very reduced state of
excitability, and will no longer emit strokes on being irritated with
one hand, the shocks are felt in a very vivid manner, on forming the
chain, and employing both hands. Even then, however, the electric
shock takes place only at the will of the animal. Two persons, one of
whom holds the tail, and the other the head, cannot, by joining hands
and forming a chain, force the gymnotus to dart his stroke.
Though employing the most delicate electrometers in various ways,
insulating them on a plate of glass, and receiving very strong shocks
which passed through the electrometer, I could never discover any
phenomenon of attraction or repulsion.
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