File:Linnaeus 1766 Gymnotus Electricus.png

English: Original description of electric eel by Linnaeus in 1766, as "Gymnotus Electricus", in his Systema Naturae, 12th Edition. Latin text (partly obscured) "Torpedinis trementis, unde tangenti crepis membra dolore, qualis a cubiti contusione, ut s... prosternatur, potissimum a pisce majore, et cr... vis non ab iterato tactu et percussione nuper debilitata. Percussio sentitur dolorifica tactu ..., licet manubrio metallico, maxime aureo; et in scapha constitutio, digito aquae immisso per 15 (?) des sentitur tremor; non vero tactu cerae sigillariae (?). Vis appropriata morbis soporosis; melnenda (?) tantibus, inde submergendis. Vide Gronovium. Caput punctis perforatis adspersum." -> (unclear) "Trembling Torpedo [fish], whence the limbs are rattling to the touch with pain, such as from the bruising of the elbow, so that the person can be thrown down, especially from the larger fish, and the lower limb has not been recently weakened by a second touch and stroke. The strike feels painful to the touch..., although the handle is metal, mostly orange; and on placing the vessel, a tremor was felt by the fingers of the water being inserted; but not by the touch of sealing wax. The force appropriated to the diseases of the drowsy ? nightmare (?), to be drowned. See Gronovius. The head is sprinkled with pierced dots."