STEP RIGHT UP TO THE SCIENCE CIRCUS

DOI: 10.4324/9781003239284-8

Drssed in the formal suits and dresses of 1798, the audience was quiet. Barely a whisper could be heard as Professor Giovanni Aldini took the stage. In front of him was the body of a freshly killed ox. The head had been removed before it was placed on the table. Aldini explained to audience members that they were going to see a demonstration of animal electricity—proof that animal bodies contained electricity and that electricity could control the body.

Aldini took two metal rods and hooked them to a battery. He touched one rod to the dead animal and nothing happened. But when he touched the second rod, one of the animal’s legs moved as if it was alive. The audience screamed. Was Aldini some sort of resurrectionist trying to make the dead come back to life? Aldini moved the rods to a different spot and made another leg move. People were horrified and amazed. And they always kept coming back for more. Aldini put on his science shows all across Europe—almost like a traveling science circus. But he wasn’t just trying to scare people to death, he was raising money to study galvanism.

Barely a whisper could be heard as Professor Giovanni Aldini took the stage. In front of him was the body of a freshly killed ox. The head had been removed before it was placed * on the table.

Giovanni Aldini was continuing the experiments his uncle Luigi Galvani had started in the 1780s. Galvani had learned that when a static spark touched a dead frogs leg, the leg would move. He began experimenting with other animal parts and found that they also reacted to electrical stimulation. The study of electricity in animals was called galvanism in honor of Galvani. But rival scientist Alessandro Volta (inventor of the electric battery) thought Galvani’s ideas were wrong and that the movement of the animal’s dead body was due to the electric current in the cable. Not the animal.

After his uncle Luigi’s death, Aldini took up the study of galvanism and continued experiments with birds, mammals, and even on human corpses. In 1803, the magistrates of London awarded Aldini the freshly executed body of George Forster for the purpose of experimentation. Aldini performed his gruesome experiments on Forster before an audience of London doctors, scientists, and wealthy citizens. He was successful in showing that the body would move when given electrical stimulation, and the audience was amazed and terrified.

Modern scientists now realize that the human body generates electricity through chemical reactions. The heart uses electrical current to keep beating. But in 1803, electricity was a new discovery and scientists were looking for ways to use it. Many thought that electricity could be used for medicinal purposes. Professor Aldini was one of those scientists and eventually experimented with using electricity to help cure mental illness.

Today’s doctors do use electroconvulsive therapy to treat some severe forms of mental depression, but only after other medications have failed. Electrical stimulation is also used to revive heart attack patients, and electrical nerve stimulation is used help manage pain and repair damaged tissue.

Galvani had learned that when a static spark touched a dead frog's leg, the leg would move.

INSPIRATION FOR FRANKENSTEIN?

Some historians believe that author Mary Shelley had read about Aldini's experiments in galvanism and this was part of her inspiration for the story of Frankenstein. The observers of Aid inf's experiments with the human corpse said it looked like he had "brought the man back to life." In reality, the electricity made the muscles contract. But Mary Shelley used her imagination to explore what might happen if a scientist were able to use electricity to bring a corpse back from the dead.