There are several species, but the most remarkable, from its singular physical properties, is the Electrical Eel, Gymnotus electricus (Fig.
The gymnotus gives the most frightful shocks without the least muscular movement in the fins, in the head, or any other part of the body.
The gymnotus makes its shock felt in any part of its body which is touched, but the excitement is greater when touched under the belly, and in the pectoral fin.
These properties enable the gymnotus to arrest suddenly the pursuit of an enemy, or the flight of its prey, to suspend on the instant every movement of its victim, and subdue it by an invisible power.
The gymnotus surpasses in size and strength all the other electric fishes.
The electrical properties of the gymnotus were reported for the first time by Van Berkal.
The order of fishes which includes the Gymnotusor electrical eel.
Defn: A genus of South American fresh-water fishes, including the Gymnotus electricus, or electric eel.
Defn: The order of fishes which includes the Gymnotus or electrical eel.
The Gymnotus Electricus, however, is the only one which possesses any electrical powers.
It is by this singular property the gymnotus supports its existence; its shocks stupify the smaller fishes and other animals that come within its range, so that they fall an easy prey to its voracity.
I do not remember having ever received from the discharge of a large Leyden jar, a more dreadful shock than that which I experienced by imprudently placing both my feet on a gymnotus just taken out of the water.
The Gymnotus is the famous electric eel, and like the Torpedo of the English Channel and the Mediterranean, has the power of communicating a violent electric shock.
It would be difficult to name two fish more dissimilar in outward appearance than the Gymnotus and the Torpedo, and yet they enjoy in common the unique power of communicating electric shocks.
The Gymnotus is a long eel-like fish, the Torpedo is round and flat.
Fowler mentions the fact that Galvani had been occupied many years before this in the study of electric fishes, especially the torpedo, the gymnotus electricus and silurus electricus.
The Gymnotus electricus, or electrical eel, and the Raia torpedo, a species of ray, are the most remarkable.
The phenomena of the Torpedo and Gymnotus we have already noticed,[264] and there are other creatures which certainly possess the power of secreting and discharging electricity.
The gymnotus can stun and kill fish which are in very various relations to its own body.
The gymnotusfrequently gives a double and even a triple shock, with scarcely a sensible interval between each discharge.
A gymnotusbeing obtained, I conducted a series of experiments.
It is well known that the gymnotus is a kind of eel, with a blackish, slimy skin, furnished along the back and tail with an apparatus composed of plates joined by vertical lamellæ, and acted on by nerves of considerable power.
Very fortunately the travelers had to contend with neither gymnotus nor sucuriju, and the passage across the submerged forest, which lasted about two hours, was effected without accident.
But in no case, not even in those of the Gymnotus and Torpedo, is there a pure creation or a production of power without a corresponding exhaustion of something to supply it.
The power of giving electric shocks has been discovered also in the Gymnotus electricus (electric eel), the Malapterurus electricus, the Trichiurus electricus, and the Tetraodon electricus.
The Gymnotus Electricus is not the only animal endowed with this very singular power; there are other fish, especially the Torpedo and Silurus, which are equally remarkable, and equally well known.
Among other remarkable objects in the museum of natural history we recognized, swimming upon his shingly bed under a glass case, our old friend the Gymnotus Electricus, or Electrical Eel.
The Gymnotus then made a turn to look for his prey, which having found, he bolted it, and then went about seeking for more.
Another curious circumstance was observed by Professor Faraday--the Gymnotus appeared conscious of the difference of giving a shock to an animate and an inanimate body, and would not be provoked to discharge its powers upon the latter.
Williamson, in a paper he communicated some years ago to the Royal Society, that a fish already struck motionless gave signs of returning animation, which the Gymnotus observing, he instantly discharged another shock, which killed it.
But great as is the force of a single discharge, the Gymnotus will sometimes give a double, and even a triple shock, with scarcely any interval.
It is worthy of observation, that this is the only specimen of the Gymnotus Electricus ever brought over alive into this country.
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.
The gymnotusseemed to direct its strokes sometimes from the whole surface of its body, sometimes from one point only.
The European eel will creep during the night upon the grass; but I have seen a very vigorous gymnotus that had sprung out of the water, die on the ground.
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 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.
The gymnotus seldom failed in its aim; one single stroke was almost always sufficient to overcome the resistance which the strata of water, more or less thick according to the distance, opposed to the electrical current.
Nothing in the torpedo or in the gymnotus indicates that the animal modifies the electrical state of the bodies by which it is surrounded.
When the gymnotus was enfeebled by bad health, the lateral shock was imperceptible; and in order to feel the shock, it was necessary to form a chain, and touch the fish with both hands at once.
It depends upon the gymnotus to direct its action towards the point where it finds itself most strongly irritated.
It is also in the case only of small shocks, feeble and uniform, that they are more sensible on touching the gymnotus with one hand (without forming a chain) with zinc, than with copper or iron.
The gymnotus being immersed in water, I placed my hand, both armed and unarmed with metal, within a very small distance from the electric organs; yet the strata of water transmitted no shock, while M.
These are so characteristic, that by them the peculiar powers of the torpedo and gymnotus are principally recognised.
It was a stupendous explosion all the same, as the unhappygymnotus discovered to his cost.
They said it might be a good while before a qualified gymnotus would pass that way, although the State Ichthyologer assured them that he had put some eels' eggs into the head waters of the Sacramento River not two weeks previously.
All the circumstances narrated by Humboldt establish the close analogy between the gymnotus and torpedo in the vital phenomenon attending the exercise of their extraordinary means of offence.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "gymnotus" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
