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Luigi Alyisio Galvani (September 9, 1737 – December 4, 1798) was an Italian physician and physicist who lived and died in Bologna. In 1771, he discovered that the muscles of dead frogs legs twitched when struck by a spark.[1] This was one of the first forays into the study of bioelectricity, a field that still today studies the electrical patterns and signals of the nervous system. He was cutting the frogs legs as an experiment trying to prove that a frog´s testicles were actually in their legs. He was quickly proved wrong by other biologists at the University of Pavia.
Volta's investigations led shortly to the invention of an early 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, a metallic electricity.
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 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.[2] Thus, owing to an argument between the two in regard 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 voltaic pile.
20100219-DSC_0228
Luigi Alyisio Galvani (September 9, 1737 – December 4, 1798) was an Italian physician and physicist who lived and died in Bologna. In 1771, he discovered that the muscles of dead frogs legs twitched when struck by a spark.[1] This was one of the first forays into the study of bioelectricity, a field that still today studies the electrical patterns and signals of the nervous system. He was cutting the frogs legs as an experiment trying to prove that a frog´s testicles were actually in their legs. He was quickly proved wrong by other biologists at the University of Pavia.
Volta's investigations led shortly to the invention of an early 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, a metallic electricity.
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 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.[2] Thus, owing to an argument between the two in regard 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 voltaic pile.