Luigi Galvani

Luigi Aloisio Galvani (9 September 1737 – 4 December 1798) was a physiologist credited with the discovery of bioelectricity.

Early History

Galvani was born in Bologna, northern Italy. He studied at Bologna, where he became Professor of Anatomy in 1762. He was also appointed Professor of Obstetrics at the Institute of Arts and Sciences.

With the acquisition of an electrostatic machine (a device for making sparks) and a Leyden jar (a device used to store static electricity), Galvani found that the electric current delivered by the two would cause the contraction of muscles in the legs of frogs and many other animals, either by applying the charge to the muscles or to nerves.

The story

In 1783, according to the popular version of the story, Galvani dissected a frog at a table where he had been conducting experiments with static electricity. Galvani's assistant touched an exposed sciatic nerve of the frog with a metal scalpel, which had picked up a charge. At that moment, they saw sparks in an electricity machine and the dead frog's leg kick as if in life. The observation made Galvani the first investigator to appreciate the relationship between electricity and animation — or life. This finding provided a basis for the current understanding that electrical energy (carried by ions), and not air or fluid as in earlier balloonist theories, is the impetus behind muscle movement. He is typically credited with the discovery of bioelectricity.

His posts and achievements

Galvani was appointed Reader in Anatomy at the University in 1762. His skill as a surgeon soon won him the Chair of Obstetrics at the Institute of Sciences, of which he was to become president in 1772. He was the first to discover the physiological action of electricity through the frog. His discoveries opened the way to new research in the physiology of muscle and nerve and pioneered the subject of electrophysiology (the study of the connection between living organisms and electricity).