Galvani, Luigi (1737–1798)

Italian physiologist who discovered galvanic, or voltaic, electricity in 1762, when investigating the contractions produced in the muscles of dead frogs by contact with pairs of different metals. His work led quickly to Alessandro Volta's invention of the electrical cell, and later to an understanding of how nerves control muscles.

Galvani was born and educated in Bologna, where he taught anatomy. He was professor 1775–97, when he resigned rather than swear allegiance to Napoleon as head of the new Cisalpine Republic.

In 1786 Galvani noticed that touching a frog with a metal instrument during a thunderstorm made the frog twitch. He concluded that electricity was causing the contraction and postulated (incorrectly) that it came from the animal's muscle and nerve tissues. He summarized his findings in 1791 in a paper called ‘De viribus electricitatis in motu musculari commentarius/Commentary on the Effect of Electricity on Muscular Motion’, which gained general acceptance. But by 1800, Volta had proved that Galvani had been wrong and that the source of the electricity in his experiments had been two different metals and the animal's body fluids. Nevertheless, for many years current electricity was called Galvanic electricity.