Shocking frogs : Galvani, Volta, and the electric origins of neuroscience / Marco Piccolino, Marco Bresadola ; translated by Nicholas Wade.

Rane, torpedini e scintille. English

Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2013]

xxii, 376 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Includes bibliographical references (pages 335-359) and index.

Galvani, Volta and the forgotten electrophysiology -- "Truth and usefulness": medicine and natural philosophy in the eighteenth century -- Galvani's education in Bologna : the University, the Institute of Sciences, and the hospitals -- Galvani's professional career -- Galvani's early anatomo-physiological investigation -- Animal spirits, vital forces, and electricity : nervous conduction and muscular motion in the eighteenth century -- The debate on Hallerian irritability -- The study of electricity in the eighteenth century -- "Artificial" electricity, "natural" electricity and their role in the human body -- Electric fish -- Artificial electricity, the spark, and the nervous fluid : Galvani's early research on muscular motion -- The beginning of electrophysiological experimentation -- A "problematic" turn : the observation of contractions at a distance -- Galvani's Saggio sulla forza nervea of 1782 -- A "fortunate" discovery : Galvani's theory of animal electricity -- The study of "airs" in relation to the living organism -- The effects of atmospheric electricity on muscular motion and the discovery of metal arcs -- The model of the muscle as an animal Leyden jar -- The final elaboration of the theory of animal electricity.

The controversy between Galvani and Volta over animal electricity : the first stage -- Galvani's work in the scientific culture of the late eighteenth century -- Volta's early research on animal electricity : quantification, muscular physiology, and the "special theory of contact electricity" -- Galvani's Trattato dell'arco conduttore : the criticism against Volta and the notion of a circuit of animal electricity -- The controversy between Galvani and Volta over animal electricity : the second stage -- Volta's "general theory of contact electricity" -- Galvani's reply to Volta's criticisms and the1797 Memorie sulla elettricità animale -- Galvani's research on electric fish and the various forms of electricity -- The conclusion of the Galvani-Volta controversy -- The electrophysiological work of Alessandro Volta -- Volta and life sciences -- Volta's research on sensations -- Sensation and muscular motion in Volta's "chain" experiments -- Volta's research on electric fishes and the invention of the electric battery -- From Galvani to Hodgkin and beyond : the central problem of electrophysiology in the last two centuries -- Measuring animal electricity -- Nervous conduction : propagated electric signal and the firing of a train of gun-powder -- The involvement of animal electricity in nerve conduction demonstrated -- Neuromuscular excitability : the modern explanation -- Cell membrane and ions : a machine generating electric potentials -- The electric mechanism of nerve conduction and muscle excitation -- Concluding remarks.

Translated from the Italian.