Aldini’s experiment became so widely feared yet intriguing that themes of reanimated life after death became centerpieces for novels like Polidori’s The Vampyre and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Shelley even admitted that Victor’s use of electricity was inspired by the practices of Galvanism (Mackowiak). In the preface to Frankenstein, Shelley explains that the character and actions of Victor came to her in a dream, inspired by galvanism. She writes, “I saw – with shut eyes, but acute mental vision, – I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion” (Shelley 1). This gives readers an insight to the level of thought Shelley gave to creating life from death. Aldini’s work obviously made enough of an impact to permeate into Shelley’s thoughts which she then formed into a classic and highly acclaimed novel. [1] The use of imagery shows the inherent fear Shelley had at the time. She used this fear to capture the attention of readers even today. [2] Furthermore, her portrayal of Victor as a scientist may give an idea of what her thoughts about scientific progress was at the time. She describes Victor as an egotistic science maniac, which is apparent in his quote “I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life; nay, more, I became myself capable of bestowing animation up on lifeless matter” (Shelley 76). Shelley’s view of science was most likely shaped by her fear of what science could do and thus manifested it in a form of a conceited mad scientist.

Note: There are other ties through Galvanism and Frankenstein that are mentioned in other tiles (Primary Sources, Electrophysiology, and It’s Alive!)

[1] Galvanism, though disproved, has changed much of our present education. We learn about galvanic currents in chemistry and capacitors in physics, but Galvani also affected the way we learn about Gothic literature.

[2] We fear the progression of AI within science. Essentially, fears have not changed at the root. It will be interesting to see how, as a class, we bridge all the important subtexts within the novel.

Top image: The eye image above, from the film Frankenstein Unbound, was chosen as the opening of the eye holds great importance to Shelley as it directly ties the Forster experiment to the awakening of the monster.

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Citations

Mackowiak, Philip A. “President’s Address: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, and The Dark Side of Medical Science.” Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association, American Clinical and Climatological Association, 2014, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4112683/#B3.

Despite Volta’s refutation, demonstrations of galvanism remained popular in the 19th century, especially among the elite. Elites would often hold parties and host experiments to entertain their guests (Lai). In her journal, English Baroness Elizabeth Lady Holland writes about a dinner party she attended in Turin in May of 1792. She notes, “Cte. Masin gave me a very fine dinner. Before dinner, he sent for one of the Professors, who exhibited the cruel experiment of a frog to prove animal electricity” (Holland 7). Galvanism was not only for the elite, however. Public demonstrations of galvanic experiments on mutilated dead animals were frequent during the 1700-1800s.

In 1803, John Aldini wrote about his own experimental procedures on galvanism. He compiled his thoughts into a journal called “An Account of the Late Improvements in Galvanism (1803).” In this journal, J. Aldini describes the effects of electricity introduced to a criminal’s head, arms, and legs. After charging the head, the mouth discharged saliva and appeared to be distorted. He then tried placing the charges directly on the brain, which excited the muscles of the face. As he kept going, the contractions of the muscles became weaker and weaker, especially in the extremities. J. Aldini found that the more energy he put into the electrodes, the stronger the contractions became. Aldini even attempted to push currents through the heart. However, by this time, the body was too far gone to show any signs of successful resuscitation. In total, J. Aldini conducted nearly one hundred experiments on animals and humans and documented each one.[1]

Luigi Galvani had a nephew by the name of Giovanni Aldini. Aldini, a strong supporter of galvanism, was determined to refute Volta on the theory of animal electricity. After many demonstrations of galvanism using dismembered animals, Aldini decided to electrify executed criminal, George Forster in a public setting. This experiment would go down as one of the most famous in medical history. When Forster’s face was attached to a large battery and conducting rods, “‘the jaw began to quiver, the adjoining muscles were horribly contorted, and the left eye actually opened’.  The climax of the performance came as Aldini probed Forster’s rectum, causing his clenched fist to punch the air, as if in fury, his legs to kick and his back to arch violently” (Pilkington). This experiment frightened many of those in the audience and everyone who heard about it, including Gothic novelist Mary Shelley. The opening of the eye, in particular, was an image so powerful that Shelley incorporated it into her narrative: “With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet…. I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs” (Shelley 35). There is a direct parallel between the real account of George Forster and the monster’s coming to life. Both Shelley and the account of George Forster focus on the opening of the eye with one hand stretched out: “…and his eyes, if they may be called, where fixated on me. His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks… one hand was stretched out…” (Shelley 36). Given these descriptions, it is hard to refute that galvanism was indeed an inspiration for Frankenstein.

[1] The “Account on the Late Improvements in Galvanism (1803) was written by the name of John Aldini. This may have been Giovanni Aldini, Luigi Galvani’s nephew. Because of the uncertainty, this paper references Giovanni Aldini and John Aldini as separate scientists.

Top image: “Old Handwritten Journal” (Pixabay) was chosen because it mimics what Lady Holland’s firsthand account would look like. Note that it is not the actual journal of the Baroness.

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Citations

Aldini, John. “An Account of the Late Improvements in Galvanism (1803).” The Public Domain Review, publicdomainreview.org/collections/an-account-of-the-late-improvements-in- galvanism-1803/.

Holland, Elizabeth. “The Journal of Elizabeth Lady Holland.” Google Books, 1908, books.google.com/books?id=AgwMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA7&lpg=PA7&dq=%22cruel% 2Bexperiment%2Bupon%2Ba%2Bfrog%22&source=bl&ots=IbhpahS- dr&sig=x67Ee95EPiJHbb6VT3cgtUHlQmU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjBoZr- v5rUAhUKyoMKHdSLC-QQ6AEIJTAB#v=onepage&q=%22cruel%20experiment&f=false.

Luigi Galvani was an Italian physician, physicist, and biologist who pioneered the field of bioelectrics and discovered what he called animal electricity. He followed in his father’s footsteps and obtained his medical education from the University of Bologna. In his early medical career, he primarily focused on the nasal mucosa and the middle ear but soon abandoned this work because a rival stole his work. This turn of events proved to be fortuitous as it forced him to turn to physics. His most famous work stems from an accidental experiment when he discovered dead frog legs could twitch when introduced to two pieces of metal to complete the circuit (Dibner). According to the Corrosion Doctors’ biography, Galvani wrote, “While one of those who were assisting me touched lightly, and by chance, the point of his scalpel to the internal nerves of the frog, suddenly all the muscles of its limbs were seen to be so contracted that they seemed to have fallen into tonic convulsions” (“Luigi Galvani (1737 – 1789″). At the time, Galvani believed that he had reanimated a dead body because the corpse conducted electricity; he coined this phenomenon animal electricity. He proposed that animals conducted electricity in order to generate muscle movements throughout their bodies—a theory that sent both the scientific and medical community into a frantic excitement (Lai). Galvani’s work became so widely popular in the scientific field that it incited jealousy in a physicist by the name of Alessandro Volta. Volta was convinced that Galvani was wrong and tested the theory without the presence of a dead body. Eventually, Volta found that metals were the sole parts responsible for the electric current and argued that a new invention could potentially allow for a steady source of electricity. This would be later known as the Voltaic pile or battery. Volta published his findings a decade after Galvani’s theory about animal electricity, disproving Galvani and his work.

Below are two videos explaining Luigi and Galvani’s work.

Top image: “Luigi Galvani” from 1892 Popular Science Monthly, volume 41 (Wikicommons), was a portrait of Luigi Galvani that has been modified from the original version in order to provide a greater contrast within the image.

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Citations
Balistreri, Kathy, director. How Luigi Galvani’s Frog Leg Experiment Made a Dead Frog Jump & Invented the Battery. Youtube, KathyLovesPhysics, 12 Oct. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG6W8A3JYFA.

Balistreri, Kathy, director. How Volta Invented the First Battery Because He Was Jealous of Galvani’s Frog. Youtube, KathyLovesPhysics, 25 Oct. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6wJfx0VYRY.

Dibner, Bern. “Luigi Galvani.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 28 Mar. 2017, www.britannica.com/biography/Luigi-Galvani.

Lai, Andrew. “Helix Magazine.” The Experiment That Shocked the World | Helix Magazine, 2 Aug. 2017, helix.northwestern.edu/article/experiment-shocked-world.

“Luigi Galvani (1737-1798).” Luigi Galvani, Corrosion Doctors, www.corrosion- doctors.org/Biographies/GalvaniBio.htm.\