Cirrus@Austlit

Author's note: One November day in 1780 Luigi Galvani, physician, anatomist and physicist, was dissecting numerous fish, birds and frogs. Several frog legs lay on his desk, their nerves exposed by his skilful hand. By chance, his metal knife touched a nerve in one of the legs at the exact moment when a spark was released by his Leyden jar. Galvani could not believe his eyes. The leg muscles contracted. He had discovered that nerves react to electrical impulses. For the first time, using a simple technical device in the form of a conducting knife blade, he had forged a connection between technical and biological material.