GALVANISM

(From Galvani, profe or of anatomy at Bologna, the discoverer of some of the phenomena connected with this form of electricity in the year 1790.) Under this term are frequently included the phenomena of Voltaic ihctricity (which see). We shall here limit it to the apparent evolution of electricity by the contact of different metals: thi< is best observed by the muscular contractions which are 1 in the leg of a frog recently killed, when two different metals, sucb as zinc and silver, tin and gold, , one of which touches the crural nerve, and the other the mus brought into contact. Every time the me:als touch each other the limb becomes powerfully convulsed; and if riment be made with a dead rahl.it, so that one of the metals he In contact with the brain, and the other with [s. 501]