Shocking frogs: Galvani, Volta, and the electric origins of neuroscience

Abstract

Foreword Authors' preface to the Italian edition Authors' preface to the English edition Acknowledgments 1. Galvani, Volta and the forgotten electrophysiology 2. Truth and usefulness: medicine and philosophy in the eighteenth century 2.1 Galvani's education in Bologna: the University, the Institute of Sciences, and the hospitals 2.2. Galvani's professional career 2.3 Galvani's early anatomo-physiological investigation 3. Animal spirits, vital forces, and electricity: nervous conduction and muscular motion in the eighteenth century 3.1 The debate on Hallerian irritability 3.2 The study of in the eighteenth century 3.3. electricity, natural and their role in the human body 3.4. Electric fish 4. Artificial electricity, the spark, and the nervous fluid: Galvani's early research on muscular motion 4.1 The beginning of electrophysiological experimentation 4.2. A problematic turn: the observation of contractions at a distance 4.3. Galvani's Saggio sulla forza nervea of 1782 5. A fortunate discovery: Galvani's theory of animal 5.1. The study of airs in relation to the living organism 5.2. The effects of atmospheric on muscular motion and the discovery of metal arcs 5.3. The model of the muscle as an animal Leyden jar 5.4. The final elaboration of the theory of animal 6. The controversy between Galvani and Volta over animal electricity: the first stage 6.1. Galvani's work in the scientific culture of the late eighteenth century 6.2 Volta's early research on animal electricity: quantification, muscular physiology, and the special theory of contact electricity 6.3. Galvani's Trattato dell'arco conduttore: the criticism against Volta and the notion of a circuit of animal 7. The controversy between Galvani and Volta over animal electricity: the second stage 7.1. Volta's general theory of contact electricity 7.2. Galvani's reply to Volta's criticisms and the1797 Memorie sulla elettricita animale 7.3 Galvani's research on electric fish and the various forms of 7.4 The conclusion of the Galvani-Volta controversy 8. The electrophysiological work of Alessandro Volta 8.1 Volta and life sciences 8.2 Volta's research on sensations 8.3 Sensation and muscular motion in Volta's chain experiments 8.4 Volta's research on electric fishes and the invention of the electric battery 9. From Galvani to Hodgkin and beyond: the central problem of electrophysiology in the last two centuries 9.1 Measuring animal 9.2 Nervous conduction: propagated electric signal and the firing of a train of gun-powder 9.3. The involvement of animal in nerve conduction demonstrated 10. Neuromuscular excitability: the modern explanation 10.1 Cell membrane and ions: a machine generating electric potentials 10.2. The electric mechanism of nerve conduction and muscle excitation 11. Concluding remarks Bibliography