"In 1771 he published the elaborate paper on the theory of the principle phenomena of electricity, which appears in the Philosophical Transactions for that year. In 1776 appeared... his Attempts to imitate the effects of the Torpedo. ...[T]he singular power which the torpedo possesses, of benumbing those that touch it, had been referred with great ingenuity and force of argument, by Walsh and others, to its possessing the means of discharging electricity at will. Cavendish... tried whether he could not successfully imitate the effects of the living fish, by a piece of apparatus constructed in imitation of it, and placed in connection with a friction electrical machine and a Leyden battery. He succeeded... all doubts as to the identity of the torpedinal benumbing power, with common electricity, were removed."