Unpublished paper, 'Miscellaneous observations on the torpedo' by John Davy
Reference number: AP/25/4
Date: 06 December 1840

Description
Davy describes experiments made on a single fish, of middle size commonly known as electric ray, recently taken out of the water. Portions of the electrical organs, cut transversely in thin slices, showed under the microscope many elliptical particles, apparently blood corpuscles, the long diameter of which was about 1-800th, and the short about 1-1000th of an inch, and a few filaments, apparently nervous, irregularly scattered; some of them tortuous, and all about the 2000th of an inch in diameter. The latter bore no resemblance to muscular fibres. The blood contained some globular particles, having a diameter of the 4000th of an inch, mixed with the elliptical. The mucus for lubricating the surface was found to contain globules apparently homogeneous in substance, but of irregular outline, and in size varying from the 2000th to the 270th of an inch.
Annotations in pencil throughout.
Subject: Zoology / Ichthyology
Received 7 January 1841.
Written by Davy at Constantinople [Istanbul].
Whilst the Royal Society declined to publish this paper in full, an abstract of the paper was published in volume 4 of Abstracts of the Papers Printed in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London [later Proceedings of the Royal Society] as 'Miscellaneous observations on the torpedo'.
- Reference number
- AP/25/4
- Earliest possible date
- 06 December 1840
- Physical description
- Ink and graphite pencil on paper
- Page extent
- 4 pages
- Format
- Manuscript
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John Davy, Unpublished paper, 'Miscellaneous observations on the torpedo' by John Davy, 06 December 1840, AP/25/4, The Royal Society Archives, London, https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/ap_25_4/unpublished-paper-miscellaneous-observations-on-the-torpedo-by-john-davy, accessed on 12 February 2025
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Miscellaneous observations on the torpedo External link, opens in new tab.
Date: 31st December 1843
DOI: 10.1098/rspl.1837.0149
Hierarchy
This item is part of:
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Archived papers: volume 25, scientific papers submitted the Royal Society unpublished or abstracted, 1841-1843
1841-1843 Reference number: AP/25
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John Davy
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Archived Papers
Dates: 1768-1989
The 'Archived Papers' collection is comprised of original manuscript scientific papers and letters submitted to the Royal Society which remained unpublished or were abstracted in the journal 'Proceedings of the Royal Society' published from 1830 onwards.View collection