‘Giovanni Aldini Discovers’.

    ‘Giovanni Aldini Discovers’.

Giovanni Aldini, an Italian physicist and anatomist, conducted several experiments in the late 18th and early 19th century. His experiments focused on the application of electricity to the human body, particularly in the field of galvanism. Some of his notable experiments include. 

1. Animal Electricity: Aldini experimented with the effects of electricity on animal bodies. He used galvanism to stimulate the muscles of dead animals, causing them to twitch and move. These demonstrations attracted public attention and were seen as a precursor to modern studies on neurophysiology.

Would Mary Shelley have conceived of her novel of 1818, Frankenstein, without the work of the Italian scientist Luigi Galvani? Looking back at its creation, she recalled long conversations with Lord Byron and her husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, about Galvani’s ideas. ‘Perhaps a corpse would be re animated’, she wrote. ‘Galvanism had given token of such things.’

Galvani’s great breakthrough had come on 20 September 1786, when he had discovered – quite by accident – that the spinal cords of a frog carried an electric charge. Galvani believed he had found proof of what he called ‘animal electricity’, an innate force in the body’s nerves. He compared the frog’s muscle fibres to a Leyden jar, an electrical component which stores a high-voltage charge between electrical conductors.

But it’s likely that Shelley had in mind Galvani’s nephew, Giovanni Aldini, who took up his uncle’s work after he died in 1798, defending his reputation and publicising – some might say vulgarising – the concept of galvanism. It was Aldini who, with much fanfare and not a little theatre, tried to use galvanism to resurrect a newly hanged man.

Despite the fact that Galvani himself tried his process on an amputated arm and foot, he seems a more self-effacing man. ‘But let there be a limit to conjectures!’ he writes at the close of the treatise announcing his discovery. His call went unheeded.

2. Electricity and Human Body: Aldini also conducted experiments on human subjects. In one famous experiment, he applied electricity to the body of a hanged criminal, George Forster. The electrical stimulation caused the body to convulse and the eyes to open, leading to speculation about the potential for reanimation. This experiment influenced Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein. Electricity is everywhere, even in the human body. Our cells are specialized to conduct electrical currents. Electricity is required for the nervous system to send signals throughout the body and to the brain, making it possible for us to move, think and feel.

3. Medical Applications: Aldini believed that electricity could have therapeutic effects on various medical conditions. He experimented with using electric currents to treat paralysis, nervous disorders, and even mental illness. Although his methods lacked scientific rigor and did not lead to significant medical advancements, they contributed to the understanding of the potential of electricity in medicine.

4. Electrical safety: Aldini was also concerned with the safety aspects of electricity. He conducted experiments to study the effects of electric shocks on the human body and to determine safe voltage limits for different situations. His research laid the foundation for modern electrical safety regulations.

Giovanni Aldini's experiments played a role in the early exploration of the effects of electricity on the human body and laid the groundwork for further research in the field of electrophysiology.