ANIMAL ELKCTRICITV. LECTURE I. 25 



HISTORICAL NOTE. 



" Animal electricity " {i.e., the electrical phenomena mani- 

 fested by animals), is now a century old. In its bio^^raphy 

 the names of Galvani, Volta, Aldini, Matteucci, du Bois- 

 Reymond, Hermann, and Bernstein, stand out as the prin- 

 cipal marks, together with three somewhat bitter but fruitful 

 controversies between Galvani and Volta (about 1794), be- 

 tween Matteucci and du Bois-Reymond (about 1850), and 

 between du Bois-Reymond and Hermann (about 1867). 



An admirable account of the Galvani v. Volta polemic is 

 given by du Bois-Reymond in his " Untersuchungen Uber 

 Thierische Elektricitat " (Berlin, 1848-49-84), but the un- 

 favourable verdict there passed upon the part played by 

 Aldini in "these troubled waters," is, in my opinion, not 

 borne out by the evidence. 



"Animal electricity" may be considered as having taken 

 origin from the observation by Luigi Galvani (or, according 

 to some writers, by his wife Lucia), of spasms occurring, to 

 all appearance spontaneously, in the legs of frogs prepared 

 for the kitchen and suspended by copper ("copper" in 1791, 

 "iron" in 1786J hooks to an iron railing. Did the act of 

 discovery arise from Luigi or from Lucia ? Which of them 

 on noticing the frog twitch first said " ecco ! " might be 

 interesting to know, but is of little moment. There are, 

 however, certain points relating to the Galvani household 

 that call for mention. At this period, Aldini, a nephew of 

 Galvani, who was professor of Physics in 1793, was pursuing 

 his studies in the University of Bologna, and was living in 

 Galvani's house. 



The memoirs bearing on the subject arc : — 



1. Galvani. De viribus elcctricitatis in motu musculari 



commentarius. Bologna, 1791. 



2. Do., ristampate a Modena, 1792, con note e una dis- 



sertatione del Prof. G. Aldini (De animalis electrical 

 theoriije). 



