From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Luigi Galvani - Italian physician famous for making
frog's legs twitch.
Luigi Galvani (September
physicist who lived and died in
Bologna. In 1771, he discovered that the muscles of dead
frogs twitched when struck by a spark.
He was a pioneer in modern
obstetrics, and discovered that
nerve cells produce
Galvani attended Bologna's medicine school and became a
medical doctor just like his father. In 1764 he married the only
daughter of the professor at the University of Bologna. In 1772
Galvani became president of the university.
The electrochemical behavior of two dissimilar
metals [(zinc (Z) and copper (C)] in a bimetallic
arch, in contact with the electrolytes of tissue,
produces an electric stimulating current that
elicits muscular contraction.
In about 1766, Galvani began investigating the action of
electricity upon the muscles of frogs. By observing the
twitching in the muscles of frog legs suspended by
copper hooks on an
rail, Galvani was led to the invention of the
metallic arc. The arc was made of two different metals, such
than when one metal was placed in contact with a frog’s nerve
and the other in contact with a muscle, a contraction would
Statue of Galvani in
In 1783, according to popular version of the story, Galvani
at a table where he had been conducting experiments with
static electricity, Galvani's assistant touched an exposed
sciatic nerve of the frog with a metal
scalpel, which had picked up a charge.
At that moment, they saw sparks in
an electricity machine and the dead frog's leg kick as if in
life. The observation made Galvani the first investigator to
appreciate the relationship between electricity and animation —
or life. This finding provided a basis for the current
understanding that electrical energy (carried by ions), and not
air or fluid as in earlier
balloonist theories, is the impetus behind muscle movement.
He is typically credited with the discovery of
Galvani coined the term animal electricity to describe
whatever it was that activated the
muscles of his specimens. Along with contemporaries, he
regarded their activation as being generated by an electrical
fluid that is carried to the muscles by the
nerves. The phenomenon was dubbed "galvanism",
after Galvani, on the suggestion of his peer and sometime
Animal electricity vs. heat
Galvani's investigations led shortly to the invention of an
battery, but not by Galvani, who did not perceive
electricity as separable from biology. Galvani did not see
electricity as the essence of life, which he regarded
vitalistically. Galvani believed that the animal electricity
came from the muscle. Galvani's associate
Alessandro Volta, in opposition, reasoned that the animal
electricity was a physical phenomenon, i.e. a metallic
While, as Galvani believed, all life is indeed electrical,
specifically that all living things are made of
cells and every cell has a
cell potential, biological electricity has the same chemical
underpinnings as the flow of current between
electrochemical cells, and thus can be recapitulated in a
way outside the body. Volta's intuition was correct. Volta,
essentially, objected to Galvani’s conclusions about “animal
electric fluid,” but the two scientists disagreed respectfully
and Volta coined the term galvanism for a direct current of
electricity produced by chemical action.
Thus, owing to an argument between the two, in regards to the
source or cause of the electricity, Volta built the first
battery in order to specifically disprove his associate's
theory. Volta's "pile" became known therefore as a
Lucia, Galvani's wife died in 1790 at age 47. Luigi died
eight years later at the age of 55.
- Galvani's report of his investigations were mentioned
Mary Shelley as part of the summer reading list leading
up to an ad hoc ghost story contest on a rainy day in
Switzerland—and the resultant novel "Frankenstein"—and
its electrically reanimated construct.
- Galvani's name also survives in the
Galvanic cell, the
Galvani crater, on the
Moon, is also named after him.
Luigi Galvani (1737-1798) – Eric Weisstein’s World of
Malmivuo, J., & Plonsey, R. (1995).
Bioelectromagnatism: Principles and applications of
bioelectric and biomagnetic fields. New York: Oxford
University Press., Ch.1
Luigi Galvani – NNDB
Luigi Galvini – IEEE Virtual Museum.
- Kandel E.R., Schwartz, J.H., Jessell, T.M. (2000).
Principles of Neural Science, 4th ed., p.6. McGraw-Hill,
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Luigi Galvani (Overview) - Corrosion Doctors
Luigi Galvani - Theory of Animal Electricity
Luigi Galvani - About.com
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Italian physicians |
Italian physicists |
Italian neuroscientists |
People from Emilia-Romagna |
1737 births |
1798 deaths |