LUIGI GALVANI, 1737-1798. 



Galvani was a native of Bologna, Italy. Born of good 

 ' family, he was early destined for the church, but changed to 

 the profession of medicine. Later he became a professor in the 

 University of Bologna, where he became famous for his research 

 work. He had always been interested in the nervous system and 

 wondered why nerves responded to stimulation. A chance twitch- 

 ing of the leg of a frog he was experimenting with gave him the clew 

 for which he was looking. He found that when a moist frog's leg 

 was touched by two unlike metals it would twitch. Until the time 

 of Galvani no one had ever suspected the presence of a current of 

 electricity, although many experiments had been made with static 

 or frictional electricity, and people knew a good deal about magnets. 

 Galvani thought the movement of the frog's leg was due to an 

 electric fluid in this muscle, but a little later Volta, a professor in 

 the near-by University of Padua, proved that Galvani was wrong. 

 He showed that the electric current was due to chemical action 

 taking place between the two unlike metals connected by the moist 

 frog muscle. This made electricity on the same principle as it is 

 made in our galvanic batteries today, and made possible the flash- 

 light, our electric doorbells, and the hundreds of devices we use 

 today that depend upon the electric battery. 



