Galvani

Luigi Galvani
Luigi Galvani; physician famous for pioneering bioelectricity
Born	(1737-09-09)September 9, 1737 Bologna, Papal States
Died	December 4, 1798(1798-12-04) (aged 61) Bologna, Papal States
Known for	Bioelectricity (animal electricity)
Scientific career
Institutions	University of Bologna

Luigi Aloisio Galvani (/ɡɑːlˈvɑːni/;Italian: [ɡalˈvaːni]; Latin: Aloysius Galvanus; 9 September 1737 – 4 December 1798) was an Italian physician, physicist, biologist and philosopher, who discovered animal electricity. He is recognized as the pioneer of bioelectromagnetics. In 1780, he discovered that the muscles of dead frogs' legs twitched when struck by an electrical spark. This was one of the first forays into the study of bioelectricity, a field that still studies the electrical patterns and signals from tissues such as the nerves and muscles.

Luigi Galvani was born to Domenico and Barbara Caterina Foschi, in Bologna, then part of the Papal States. Domenico was a goldsmith, and Barbara was his fourth wife. His family was not aristocratic, but they could afford to send at least one of their sons to study at a university. At first Galvani wished to enter the church, so he joined a religious institution, Oratorio dei Padri Filippini, at 15 years old. He planned to take religious vows, but his parents persuaded him not to do so. Around 1755, Galvani entered the Faculty of the Arts of the University of Bologna. Galvani attended the medicine course, which lasted four years, and was characterized by its "bookish" teaching. Texts that dominated this course were by Hippocrates, Galen, and Avicenna.