Galvanism

1. Galvanism by Olivia Landry and Tracy Yager

2. Galvanism “a direct current of electricity especially when produced by chemical action” Oxford English Dictionary

3. Luigi Galvani • 1737-1798 • Studied medicine at Bologna University • Surgery and anatomical Research • Study of Physiology • Nervous and muscular systems • Accidental Discovery • Influence of electricity on muscular movement

4. Experiments and Discoveries • Leyden Jar

5. Experiments and Discoveries • Atmosphere

6. Experiments and Discoveries • Metallic arc

7. Theory of Animal Electricity • “animals possess in their nerves and muscles a subtle fluid quite analogous to ordinary electricity” Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography • Galvanism

8. Alessandro Volta • Galvani-Volta Controversy • Theory of Contact • 1799 – Development of first electrical battery

9. Giovanni Aldini • 1762-1834 • Studied physics at the University of Bologna • Luigi Galvani’s nephew and assistant

10. Experiments and Discoveries • Brain • Mammals • Humans

11. Demonstration of 1803 • George Foster • Influence on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) • “When the rods were applied to Foster’s mouth and ear…the jaw began to quiver, the adjoining muscles were horribly contorted, and the left eye actually opened. When one rod was moved to touch the rectum, the whole body convulsed…as almost to give an appearance of reanimation” (Parent 638). • “I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs” (Shelley 58).

12. Andrew Ure • 1778-1857 • Studied Medicine at Glasgow University

13. 1818 Experiment • Tested electrical current on the body of a criminal • After the body was dissected to open key nerve endings, Ure used a 270-plate voltaic battery to spark the the Supraorbital nerve and the left phrenic nerve • Ure was optimistic • “had the cadaver not been so ill-used there was a probability that life might have been restored” (Farrar 307)

15. Public Reaction • “At this period several of the spectators were forced to leave from terror or sickness, and one gentleman fainted” (Farrar 307). • “such a declaration would have been considered as the ravings of a madman” (Shelley 83) • “Agatha fainted, and Safie, unable to attend to her friend, rushed out of the cottage. Felix darted forward, and with supernatural force… struck [the creature] violently with at stick” (Shelley 137).

16. Influence on Mary Shelley • “Shelley is careful not to describe Victor Frankenstein’s ‘instruments of life,’ but it is clear that he used the unleashed powers of ‘electricity and galvanism’… the mechanism that infused the ‘spark of life into the lifeless thing’ as harnessing vast electrical power, sometimes directly from lighting” (Kemp 529). • “I collected the instrument of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet” (Shelley 58). • “he entered on the explanation of a theory which he had formed on the subject of electricity and galvanism, which was at once new and astonishing to me” (Shelley 43)

17. Modern Uses of Galvanism • “galvanism is the most powerful agent which we possess to restore animation when…the heart suddenly stop[s]” (Green 552) • Other Uses: • Modern day defibrillators • Electrotherapy • Cosmetic electrotherapy

18. Modern Uses of Galvanism • a tree is “entirely reduced to thin ribbons of wood…[and] utterly destroyed” by “a stream of fire…[and] a dazzling light” (Shelley 42) • Death penalty

19. Bibliography • Farrar, W. V. "Andrew Ure, F.R.S., and the Philosophy of Manufactures." Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 27.2 (1973): 299-324. JSTOR [JSTOR]. Web. 15 Sept. 2015. • "Galvani, Luigi." Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 5. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008. 267-69. Gale Virtual Reference Library [Gale]. Web. 13 Sept. 2015. • Green, Thomas. "On Death From Chloroform: Its Prevention By Galvanism." The British Medical Journal 1.595 (1872): 551-53. JSTOR [JSTOR]. Web. 15 Sept. 2015. • Kemp, Martin. "Shelley's Shocks." Nature 394.6693 (1998): 529. Academic Search Complete [EBSCO]. Web. 15 Sept. 2015. • Parent, André. "Giovanni Aldini (1762-1834)." Journal of Neurology 251.5 (2004): 637-38. Academic Search Complete [EBSCO]. Web. 13 Sept. 2015. • Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus. Ed. Maurice Hindle. 3rd ed. London: Penguin Classics, 2003. Print.