Galvani, Luigi (Aloisio)

Italian physician, anatomist, and physiologist Luigi Galvani (1737–98) established the existence of what he called ‘animal electricity.’ Galvani described his experimental results initially in De Viribus Electricitatis in Motu Musculari Commentarius (1791) after more than a decade of research. Although various individuals had previously suggested a role of electricity in nervous action, Galvani's experimental results garnered international attention and were considered by many to have proven both the existence of animal electricity and the operation of animal electricity through nerves to produce muscular contractions. Although Galvani had many supporters, his results were repeatedly attacked by adherents to Albrecht von Haller's concept of irritability and also particularly by the often abrasive Italian physicist Alessandro Volta. In the end, Galvani and Volta both made significant contributions. Galvani demonstrated that there is an intrinsic form of ‘animal electricity’ that is responsible for neuromuscular transmission, and Volta developed the first practical battery from Galvani's observations that interactions of dissimilar metals can produce a muscular contraction. Galvani's work, in particular, was fundamentally important in moving the neurosciences beyond previous vague notions of ‘animal spirits’ and in laying the foundation of the new science of electrophysiology.