Galvanism
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In biology, galvanism is the contraction of a muscle that is stimulated by an electric current. The effect was named by Alessandro Volta after his contemporary, the scientist Luigi Galvani, who investigated the effect of electricity on dissected animals in the 1780s and 1790s. Galvani himself referred to the phenomenon as animal electricity, believing that he had discovered a distinct form of electricity. Volta, on the other hand, claimed that the movements were caused by contact with metals rather than by electricity.[1]
The modern study of galvanic effects is called electrophysiology, the term galvanism being used only in historical contexts. The term is also used to describe the bringing to life of organisms using electricity, as shown in Mary Shelley's work Frankenstein (which was influenced by galvanism) and people still speak of being 'galvanized into action'.
Many Victorian scientists believed that if the right amount of electricity was charged into the brain, the corpse would come back to life.
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