An Account of the Late Improvements in Galvanism / With a Series of Curious and Interesting Experiments Performed Before the Commissioners of the French National Institute, and Repeated Lately in the Anatomical Theatres of London

by Giovanni Aldini

EDITOR’S PREFACE.

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Few discoveries in modern times have excited so much curiosity as that of Galvanism. Ever since it was first made known by its celebrated Author, it has engaged the attention of the most eminent philosophers in Europe; and various researches have been undertaken to ascertain the principles on which it depends; and the laws to which it is subject.

Though some of its singular properties are fully established, it must be allowed that the discovery is still in its infancy; but enough of it is known to prove its importance, and to induce philosophers to continue their researches, which there is every reason to suppose may lead to some very curious results.

The experiments, indeed, which have already been made, seem to indicate that it may open a new field in the healing art; and it appears by a late report presented to the Class of the Exact Sciences of the Academy

of Turin, that the medical application of it has been attended with the most beneficial effects in a case of confirmed hydrophobia.

While Galvanism, independently of other advantages, holds out such hopes of utility in regard to objects so interesting to mankind; a work containing a full account of the late improvements which have been made in it, illustrated by a complete course of experiments, cannot fail of being acceptable to the public in general, and in particular to medical men, to whose department, in one point of view, it more essentially belongs.

When Professor Aldini left this country, the manuscript, written in French, together with two printed Latin Dissertations, was put into the Editor’s hands, in order that they might be prepared for the press. A translation of these forms the principal part of the work: and an Appendix has been added, containing the author’s experiments on the body of a malefactor executed at Newgate; experiments of a similar kind on the bodies of three criminals decapitated at Bologna; and an experiment lately made at Calais, which

seems to show that Galvanism is susceptible of being conveyed to a very considerable distance through the water of the sea.

The Editor thinks it necessary to observe, that the principal experiments, of which an account is given in this work, are illustrated by proper engravings, and that the title page is embellished with a representation of the gold medal presented to the Author, as a mark of their respect, by the medical professors and pupils of Guy’s and St. Thomas’s Hospitals.

London,
May 12th, 1803.