34

Bioelectromagnetism

Voltaic pile to mammalian brains. Tis gave the observation that stimulation of the corpus callosum

and cerebellum triggered motor responses. He used this method in the resuscitation of almost dead

people.

Aldini traveled through Europe to demonstrate the existence of animal electricity and the usefulness

of galvanism in the feld of medicine (Parent, 2004). In London at Mr. Wilson’s Anatomical Teatre on

January 17, 1803, Aldini tried to reanimate human corpses using electricity with a Voltaic pile of 100 and

20 copper and zinc couples, respectively. His experiment produced powerful muscular contractions

upon the head of decapitated oxen. Te contractions were produced by introducing into one of the ears a

wire connecting to one of the battery’s pole and into the nostrils or tongue another wire communicating

with the other battery pole. Te eyes repeatedly opened and rolled in their orbits while the ears would

shake, the tongue move, and the nostrils dilate very perceptibly (Mottelay, 1922). Tese scandals inspired

Mary Shelly (1797–1851) to write in 1818, the famous book Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus,

which was a novel about the revitalization of dead people. Her name as the author was not mentioned

in original edition.

Humboldt learned about Galvani’s experiment from Volta during the visit to him in 1795. He repeated

Galvani’s and Volta’s experiments. During a stay in London in 1776, young Humboldt studied with

Cavendish the electricity of torpedo. Interestingly, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), the great­

est German poet, joined Humboldt’s galvanic experiments. Over a 5-year period, Humboldt conducted

over 4,000 galvanic experiments and evaluated the roles of Galvani’s experiments. Te existence of

animal electricity with his own theory of the formation in the nerves of a galvanic fuid distinct from

electricity appeared in his work in 1797. Humboldt explained that the excitability of the muscle nerve

is not due to galvanic current and referred galvanic current to the intrinsic animal force (Finger et al.,

2013a, b). He along with Aimé Jacques Alexandre Bonpland (1773–1858), a French explorer and botanist

trained in medicine, described the sensation of pain produced by eels. As young explorers, they explored

the jungles of South America in 1800. During their travels in Guiana, they captured electric fsh as

experimental specimens, and called them “torporifc eel,” Gymnoti (trembladores), and compared their

electric shock to that of electricity. He described the difculty to capture torporifc eels in his book

(Humboldt, 1826). From this book, in order to capture them, the natives procured about 30 horses and

guided them into the pond where torporifc eels live. Te horses received the electric shock from the eels,

and the eels were captured in a state of exhaustion. Afer that, Humboldt and Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac

(1778–1850), a French physician and chemist, together conducted torpedo and eel experiments. Tis

experiment brought the foundation of bioelectricity. Humboldt was a patron to physiologists, Johannes

Peter Müller, Emil Heinrich du Bois-Raymond, and Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz. He

supported these three physiologists opening a new era in the feld of electrophysiology.

Henry Cavendish examined with Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac the electrical properties of torpedo, and

had observed that the animals must be irritated previous to the shock, preceding later a noticeable

convulsive movement of the pectoral fns that electrical action produced minimal injury to the brain of

the fsh; also that a person accustomed to electric discharges could with difculty support the shock of

a vigorous torpedo about 14 inches long; that the discharge can be felt with a single fnger placed upon

the electrical organs; and that an insulated person will not receive the shock if the fsh is touched with a

key or other conducting body (Mottelay, 1922). Interestingly, Cavendish experimented torpedo electric­

ity with artifcially created electric fsh and gained insight into electric fshes (1776). He was convinced

that Walsh’s research on the torpedo and its power was just electric. Cavendish modeled the torpedo

afer shoe leather. Te backbone of his model fsh was made by cutting and layering thick leather, simi­

lar to the size and shape of a torpedo. Te electric organs were represented by barbell-shaped pieces of

pewter attached to each side of the leather backbone (Schifer, 2003). He connected them to wire pass­

ing through long glass tubes along both sides of the torpedo’s tail. For electrifying this artifcial fsh,

he employed a large battery. Using this artifcial fsh, he carried out many experiments, for example,

to compare the electric shock of this fsh to that of a real torpedo. With the help of Walsh, Cavendish

showed that the artifcial fsh produced the same sensation as that produced by a real torpedo.