Luigi Galvani

Galvani, Luigi 

(also Aloisio Galvani). Born Sept. 9, 1737, in Bologna; died there Dec. 4, 1798. Italian anatomist and physiologist. One of the founders of the theory of electricity and the founder of electrophysiology.

Galvani was educated at the University of Bologna, where he also taught medicine. His first works were devoted to comparative anatomy. In 1771 he began experiments in animal electricity. Galvani investigated the capacity of the muscles of a dissected frog to contract under the effect of an electrical current, and he observed the contraction of muscles when they were connected with metal to the nerves or the spinal cord. He called attention to the fact that a muscle contracts when it is touched simultaneously with two different metals. These experiments were correctly explained by A. Volta, and they contributed to the invention of a new power source—the galvanic cell. In 1791, Galvani published A Treatise on the Forces of Electricity During Muscular Movement. With new experiments published in 1797 he proved that a frog’s muscle contracts even without metal touching it, when it is directly connected to a nerve. Galvani’s research was important for medical practice and developing methods of physiological experimentation.

REFERENCE

Lebedinskii, A. V. “Rol’ Gal’vani i Vol’ta v istorii fiziologii.” In A. Galvani and A. Volta, Izbr. raboty o zhivotnom elektrichestve. Moscow-Leningrad, 1937.

N. A. GRIGORIAN