Galvani, Luigi 1737-98
Italian physiologist

Born in Bologna, he became a lecturer in anatomy in 1768, and from 1782 was Professor of Obstetrics. He is famous for the discovery of animal electricity, inspired by his observation that dead frogs suffered convulsions when fixed to an iron fence to dry. He then showed that paroxysms followed if a frog was part of a circuit involving metals, wrongly believing the current source to be in the material of muscle and nerve. Galvani's name lives on in the word 'galvanized', meaning stimulated as if by electricity, and in the galvanometer, used from 1820 to detect electric current.

Bibliography: Percy Dunsheath, Giants of Electricity (1967)