A discourse on the torpedo. Delivered at the anniversary meeting of the Royal Society, November 30, 1774 / By Sir John Pringle, Baronet, President. Published by their order.

  • Pringle, John, Sir, 1707-1782.
Date:
1775
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A discourse on the torpedo. Delivered at the anniversary meeting of the Royal Society, November 30, 1774 / By Sir John Pringle, Baronet, President. Published by their order. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    w [ 15 3 through a flick, except a very fliort one. In fa£l, M. de >! 1 reaumur did deny fuch tranfraiffions; and yet it is cer¬ tain, that the fhocks from the torpedo are not lefs con- dueled through fuch media, than thofe from a charged electrical phial. Shall we then accufe of want of candour thofe celebrated authors, borelli, lorenzinj, and M. be reaumur? By no means: but let us lament the weak- nefs of the human intellect, which, pre-poffefled by fyf- tem, will often not perceive fuch objects as would ftfike the fenfes of any other perfon, nay moll certainly their own, in a more unprejudiced Hate of mind! And let us regret that other infirmity, fo incident to the beft underftand- ing, the too great forwardnefs to account for every appear¬ ance in nature, from fuch principles as are known, withr out confidering how many yet remain to be difeovered l There was a time, and that within the memory of many of my hearers, when thunder and lightning were thought fufficiently accounted for, from fulphureous and nitrous vaporrrs mixing with the air. At prefent we doubt of the exiftence of fuch vapours in the atmofphere, and are otherwife fure, that the eleClrical fluid only is concern¬ ed in the formation of that meteor. Now it feems this very fluid is the efficient caufe of the amazing qua¬ lities