The experiments of Ramón M. Termeyer SJ on the electric eel in the River Plate region (c. 1760) and other early accounts of Electrophorus electricus.
This paper focuses on Ramón M. Termeyer SJ (1737-1814?), a naturalist who experimented with the electric eel in the River Plate region during the 1760s. After going through an enumeration of the chroniclers that since the sixteenth century noticed the benumbing discharge of Electrophorus electricus, the article summarizes the work that immediately preceded Termeyer's and considers as a term of comparison the experiments on the electric eel performed by Bertrand Bajon (fl. 1751-1778) in the French Guyanne. It ends by discussing the meaning of Termeyer's 1781 and 1810 articles in the light of contemporary ideas of animal electricity.
de Asúa
Miguel
M
Universidad Nacional de San Martín-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Argentina. mdeasua@mail.retina.ar
D000818:Animals; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004593:Electrophorus; D004594:Electrophysiology / Q000266:history*; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal; D009431:Neural Conduction; D009482:Neurophysiology / Q000266:history*; D013020:South America