Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 189 of 777 - First - Home
After The Experiments I Had Made On Gymnoti, It Became Highly
Interesting To Me, On My Return To Europe, To Ascertain With Precision
The Various Circumstances In Which Another Electric Fish, The Torpedo
Of Our Seas, Gives Or Does Not Give Shocks.
Though this fish had been
examined by numerous men of science, I found all that had been
published on its electrical effects extremely vague.
It has been very
arbitrarily supposed, that this fish acts like a Leyden jar, which may
be discharged at will, by touching it with both hands; and this
supposition appears to have led into error observers who have devoted
themselves to researches of this kind. M. Gay-Lussac and myself,
during our journey to Italy, made a great number of experiments on
torpedos taken in the gulf of Naples. These experiments furnish many
results somewhat different from those I collected on the gymnoti. It
is probable that the cause of these anomalies is owing rather to the
inequality of electric power in the two fishes, than to the different
disposition of their organs.
Though the power of the torpedo cannot be compared with that of the
gymnotus, it is sufficient to cause very painful sensations. A person
accustomed to electric shocks can with difficulty hold in his hands a
torpedo of twelve or fourteen inches, and in possession of all its
vigour. When the torpedo gives only very feeble strokes under water,
they become more sensible if the animal be raised above the surface.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 189 of 777
Words from 51196 to 51445
of 211397