1-157-609 - Oxford Science Archive/Heritage Images

Luigi Galvani's experiments with electricity, 1791. An electrostatic machine, a Leyden jar and various experiments conducted by Italian physiologist Galvani (1737-1798) to investigate behaviour of muscles stimulated by electricity. Whilst investigating the effects of electrostatic stimuli applied to the muscles of frogs, Galvani discovered he could make a muscle twitch by touching the nerve with metal (a pair of scissors for example) without a source of electrostatic charge. He called this phenomenon 'animal electricity'. The term 'galvanise' - to shock or excite into action, takes its name from him. From De Viribus Electricitatis by Luigi Galvani. (Bologna, 1791).