Shocking Frogs

Marco Piccolino was Professor of General Physiology and Lecturer in Science at the University of Ferrara until 2010. As a neurophysiologist, he has made important contributions to the study of retinal mechanisms involved in vision. His books on science history cover electrophysiology, vision, and Galileo. Marco Bresadola is an historian of science and director of the Master's in Journalism and Science Communication at the University of Ferrara. He studies the history of early modern life sciences and medicine with a special focus on scientific practices and biographies.

Foreword ; Authors' preface to the Italian edition ; Authors' preface to the English edition ; Acknowledgments ; 1. Galvani, Volta and the forgotten electrophysiology ; 2. "Truth and usefulness": medicine and natural philosophy in the eighteenth century ; 2.1 Galvani's education in Bologna: the University, the Institute of Sciences, and the hospitals ; 2.2. Galvani's professional career ; 2.3 Galvani's early anatomo-physiological investigation ; 3. Animal spirits, vital forces, and electricity: nervous conduction and muscular motion in the eighteenth century ; 3.1 The debate on Hallerian irritability ; 3.2 The study of electricity in the eighteenth century ; 3.3. "Artificial" electricity, "natural" electricity and their role in the human body ; 3.4. Electric fish ; 4. Artificial electricity, the spark, and the nervous fluid: Galvani's early research on muscular motion ; 4.1 The beginning of electrophysiological experimentation ; 4.2. A "problematic" turn: the observation of contractions at a distance ; 4.3. Galvani's Saggio sulla forza nervea of 1782 ; 5. A "fortunate" discovery: Galvani's theory of animal electricity ; 5.1. The study of "airs" in relation to the living organism ; 5.2. The effects of atmospheric electricity on muscular motion and the discovery of metal arcs ; 5.3. The model of the muscle as an animal Leyden jar ; 5.4. The final elaboration of the theory of animal electricity ; 6. The controversy between Galvani and Volta over animal electricity: the first stage ; 6.1. Galvani's work in the scientific culture of the late eighteenth century ; 6.2 Volta's early research on animal electricity: quantification, muscular physiology, and the "special theory of contact electricity" ; 6.3. Galvani's Trattato dell'arco conduttore: the criticism against Volta and the notion of a circuit of animal electricity ; 7. The controversy between Galvani and Volta over animal electricity: the second stage ; 7.1. Volta's "general theory of contact electricity" ; 7.2. Galvani's reply to Volta's criticisms and the1797 Memorie sulla elettricita animale ; 7.3 Galvani's research on electric fish and the various forms of electricity ; 7.4 The conclusion of the Galvani-Volta controversy ; 8. The electrophysiological work of Alessandro Volta ; 8.1 Volta and life sciences ; 8.2 Volta's research on sensations ; 8.3 Sensation and muscular motion in Volta's "chain" experiments ; 8.4 Volta's research on electric fishes and the invention of the electric battery ; 9. From Galvani to Hodgkin and beyond: the central problem of electrophysiology in the last two centuries ; 9.1 Measuring animal electricity ; 9.2 Nervous conduction: propagated electric signal and the firing of a train of gun-powder ; 9.3. The involvement of animal electricity in nerve conduction demonstrated ; 10. Neuromuscular excitability: the modern explanation ; 10.1 Cell membrane and ions: a machine generating electric potentials ; 10.2. The electric mechanism of nerve conduction and muscle excitation ; 11. Concluding remarks ; Bibliography