GALVANISM, OR VOLTAIC ELECTRICITY.
“To play with fire
They say is dangerous; what is it then
To shake hands with the lightning, and to sport
With thunder?”—Tyler.
Galvanism, or electricity of quantity, in contradistinction to frictional electricity, called electricity of intensity, owes its name to the experiments on animal irritability made in 1790 by M. Galvani, a professor of anatomy at Bologna. These experiments were suggested by the following circumstances.