Note 3 — CHAP. VI.
Reading edition
The other animal I saw at the house of my friend Kennedy: this is what Dr. Bancroft calls the torporific, and others the electrical eel, and which Dr. Firmyn supposes to possess the same qualities with the torpedo. This wonderful animal is of a lead-blue colour, formed in a great measure like an eel, with one large fin that runs below from head to tail, not unlike the keel of a ship. It lives only in fresh water: its length is called by some three feet, and by others is asserted to be not less than four or five times as much3. When this animal is touched by the hand, or any rod of metal or hard wood, it communicates a shock, the impulse of which produces the same effect as electricity; and Dr. Firmyn has even assured me, that the shock of this electrical eel has been communicated to him through the bodies of eight or ten people, who stood hand in hand for the purpose of trying the experiment.