14 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 



that, so long as the metals did not make contact with each 

 other, he felt nothing ; but that when the edges were brought 

 together over the tip of his tongue, the moment contact took 

 place, and during the time it lasted, he experienced an itch- 

 ing sensation, and a taste resembling that of sulphate of iron. 

 If he changed the relative positions of the metals, he experi- 

 enced a different sensation, which he found difficult to 

 describe. 



Sulzer supposed that the contact of the two metals occa- 

 sioned a vibration of their particles, which, acting on the 

 nerves of the tongue, produced the taste in question. 



The next to whom chance afforded an opportunity of 

 making the discovery of galvanism, but who let it pass with 

 as little profit as Sulzer had done, was a student of medicine 

 in Bologna. He was once occupied, we are told, in dissect- 

 ing a mouse which he held in his hand, when, having touched 

 one of the nerves with his scalpel, he felt a shock resembling 

 that produced by electricity.* 



In 1790 Madame Galvani, wife of the professor of anatomy 

 at Bologna, being attacked with a slight cold, her physician 

 prescribed her//Y><7 broth. 



Frogs were provided for the purpose, skinned, washed, 

 and laid upon a table in the laboratory of the professor to 

 await the moment when they were to undergo the culinary 

 operation. Whether this operation was to be performed in 

 the laboratory, is not said ; it is certain, however, that 

 Madame Galvani was there with one of the professor's 

 assistants, who was at the moment engaged in some ex- 

 periments with a large electrical machine which stood upon 

 the same table. Whenever the assistant, in the course 

 of his experiments, took sparks from the conductor of the 

 machine, Madame Galvani was astonished to observe a twitch- 

 ing resembling life in the limbs of the dead frogs. 



This circumstance excited the lady's curiosity in the 

 highest degree, and she related her observation to her hus- 

 band, who immediately repeated the experiment, and found 



* " Essai sur 1'Histoire G-enerale des Sciences, pendant la Revolution 

 Francaise," par J. B. Biot, p. 9. 



