Journal
JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF THE NEUROSCIENCES
Volume 17, Issue 3, Pages 335-348Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC
DOI: 10.1080/09647040701420198
Keywords
Luigi Galvani; electrophysiology; animal electricity; history of neuroscience; 18th century
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The scientific endeavor that led Luigi Galvani to his hypothesis of animal electricity, i.e., of an electricity present in a condition of disequilibrium between the interior and the exterior of excitable animal fibers, is reviewed here with particular emphasis to the role played by visual images in Galvani's path of discovery. In 1791 Galvani formulated his model of neuromuscular physiology on the base of the image of a muscle and a nerve fiber together as in a minute animal Leyden jar. This was the last instance of a series of physical models that accompanied Galvani's experimental efforts in the search of a theory capable of accounting for the electric nature of nerve conduction in spite of the many objections formulated in the eighteenth century against a possible role of electricity in animal physiology.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available