Background
Giovanni Aldini was born at Bologna on the 10th of April 1762. He was a brother of the statesman Count Antonio Aldini (1756–1826) and nephew of Luigi Galvani, whose treaties on muscular electricity he edited with notes in 1791.
Giovanni Aldini, 1762 – 1834, Italian physicist.
Giovanni Aldini (April 10, 1762 – January 17, 1834), was an Italian physicist born in Bologna.
Named for Luigi Galvani's cousin Giovanni Aldini, who worked with Galvani on his later bioeletrogenisis experiments.
Frankenstein was based on some very real (and very creepy) experiments.
Giovanni Aldini: the galvanism experiments.
Stimulation frog with Electricity device.
Giovanni Aldini (April 10, 1762 – January 17, 1834), was an Italian physicist born in Bologna.
Experiments being performed upon the corpse of Matthew Clydesdale (a freshly killed murderer) at the Glasgow University anatomy theatre by Dr. Ure and Prof. Jeffray on the 4 November 1818. Note the electric battery to the far left of Clydesdales head and the drunk who is unaware of the dead mans grimaces. In 1803 Giovanni Aldini (Galvani`s nephew) performed experiments, in public, upon the severed heads of "malefactors" despatched at Newgate, London.
An Austrian Order of the Iron Crown.
The University of Bologna, Italy
Account of Giovanni Aldini's experiments with galvanism.
Named for Luigi Galvani's cousin Giovanni Aldini, who worked with Galvani on his later bioeletrogenisis experiments.
Named for Luigi Galvani's cousin Giovanni Aldini, who worked with Galvani on his later bioeletrogenisis experiments.
Frankenstein was based on some very real (and very creepy) experiments.
Giovanni Aldini. Theoretical and experimental essay on galvanism Theoretical and experimental essay on galvanism Paris, 1804.
Giovanni Aldini. Theoretical and experimental essay on galvanism Theoretical and experimental essay on galvanism Paris, 1804.
Illustration of Italian physician Luigi Galvani's experiments, in which he applied electricity to frogs legs; from his book De Viribus Electricitatis in Motu Musculari (1792).
Giovanni Aldini: the galvanism experiments.
Giovanni Aldini. "Essai théorique et expérimental sur le galvanisme"
Stimulation frog with Electricity device.
Giovanni Aldini, Essai théorique et expérimental sur le galvanisme Theoretical and experimental essay on galvanism Paris, 1804.
ca.1890 OLD GALVANISM APPARATUS Antique Engraving Print.
Luigi Aloisio Galvani, 1737 – 1798, Italian physician, physicist, biologist, and philosopher, who discovered animal electricity.
Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta, 1745 – 1827, Italian physicist, chemist, and a pioneer of electricity and power.
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biologist philosopher physicist scientist
Giovanni Aldini was born at Bologna on the 10th of April 1762. He was a brother of the statesman Count Antonio Aldini (1756–1826) and nephew of Luigi Galvani, whose treaties on muscular electricity he edited with notes in 1791.
As a young man, Aldini wanted nothing more than to discover the fabled elixir of life. However, as he grew older, his interests turned to science after seeing the remains of a tree struck by lightning. Attending the University of Bologna, he learned chemistry and soon became obsessed with the idea of bringing inanimate matter to life, through artificial means. So, he made attempts to create a humanoid creature, eager to see if he can bring it to life.
Aldini became professor of physics at Bologna in 1798, in succession to his teacher Sebastiano Canterzani (1734-1819), and earnestly investigated galvanism. In the controversy over Galvani’s “animal electricity” and Volta’s “galvanic current,” he wrote, lectured, and published in Italian, French, and English on the theories and experiments of both his uncle, Luigi Galvani, an Italian physician, physicist, biologist and philosopher, and himself. Aldini added notes and a commentary to the second edition of Galvani’s important De viribus electricitalis in motu musculari (1792). An ardent partisan of his uncle’s cause, he followed this supplement with De animale electricitate, disserlatione duae (1794) and his best-known work, Essai théorique et expérimentale sur le galvanisme (1804). This appeared in two volumes and also, in the same year, as a single quarto volume dedicated to Napoleon. The Dissertatione duae resulted from Aldini’s galvanic experiments, including those on warm-blooded animals, and generally followed suggestions made by Galvani. A paper on the results of these experiments was read before the Accademia delle Scienze di Bologna; an English translation appeared in 1803 and a French one in 1804.
At the early stage of his experiments, he started with reanimating dead frogs, but after his uncle’s death, he began to crave something more exciting. He moved on to larger animals with more sophisticated nervous systems. He began to draw crowds to his laboratory, eager to see him reanimate sheep, pigs, cows, and oxen. Then he traveled all over Europe publicly electrifying human and animal bodies, and his performances were extraordinary theatrical spectacles. In 1802 Giovanni Aldini came to London with a spectacular demonstration. Such spectacles performed on humans (and ox heads) produced repeated, spasmodic movements of facial muscles, arms, and legs. He stimulated the heads and trunks of cows, horses, sheep and dogs.
Though a showman in many respects, Aldini was among the first to treat mentally ill patients with shocks to the brain, reporting complete electrical cures for a number of mental illnesses. These experiments were described in details in Aldini's book published in London in 1803 "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 theaters of London, by John Aldini." It was an influential book on galvanism, that presented for the first time a series of experiments in which the principles of Volta and Galvani were used together. The fine series of plates illustrated the experiments which involved bodies and heads of animals and humans. For the first time a description appears here of the magnetization of steel needles through connection to a voltaic circuit. Also, in 1803, while staying in London, he ordered himself a freshly hanged criminal to be delivered to the Royal College of Surgeons. Giovanni Aldini had procured the body of George Foster. In front of a large medical and general audience, he took a pair of his conducting rods, which he had linked to a powerful battery, and touched the rods to various parts of the body. When the rods were applied to the mouth and ear, “the jaw began to quiver, the adjoining muscles were horribly contorted, and the left eye actually opened.” When one rod was moved to touch the rectum, the whole body convulsed: indeed, the movements were “so much increased as almost to give an appearance of reanimation.” The demonstration continued, the rods being placed in different combinations around the body, resulting in different movements. Although Giovanni made no indication that he believed the body would ever return to life, the onlookers believed it would happen at any moment.
In recognition of his merits, the emperor of Austria made him a knight of the Iron Crown and a councillor of state at Milan, where he died.
Giovanni Aldini became famous because he mixed a serious study with a cold show. He practiced so-called electric dances, manifested in the form of public experiments, which were intended to emphasize the effectiveness of electrical stimulation to obtain spasmodic movements of muscles, to demonstrate this, the cut off heads of executed criminals were used. He publicly demonstrated the effects of galvanism on executed murderer George Foster, causing the corpse's muscles to twitch and convulse. Even today, deep brain stimulation, a procedure currently employed to relieve patients with motor or behavioral disorders, owes much to Aldini and galvanism.
For his scientific contributions he was named a Councilor of State at Milan and a Knight of the Iron Crown by the Emperor of Austria. In the scientific community it is considered that it was these experiments of Aldini that inspired Mary Shelley to write the novel about Frankenstein in 1818.
Giovanni Aldini was the greatest of all Galvani’s supporters, and even helped to organize a society at Bologna to foster the practices of galvanism. Aldini`s scientific work was chiefly concerned with galvanism, anatomy, and its medical applications, with the construction and illumination of lighthouses, and with experiments for preserving human life and material objects from destruction by fire.
While Galvani (with one exception) remained silent during the growing controversy over the true nature of his animal electricity, the effervescent Aldini became his uncle’s champion - so much so that Volta addressed his arguments to Aldini instead of Galvani. Aldini also probably joined Galvani in the preparation of the anonymous Dell’uso e delI'attivita dell’arco conduttore (1794). This contained an important experiment, intended to demonstrate the contraction of a dissected frog’s leg without the use of any metal, that established the existence of electrical forces within living tissue. Early in 1803 he attempted to determine the velocity of an electric current across the harbor of Calais.
Aldini helped to organize a society at Bologna to foster the practices of galvanism in opposition to a Volta society established at the University of Pavia.
Aldini had a generous personality and was known for sponsoring schools to promote education. For example, he bequeathed a considerable sum to found a school of natural science for artisans at Bologna.
Quotes from others about the person
An eyewitness reported on Aldini`s experiments: "Aldini, after having cut off the head of a dog, makes the current of a strong battery go through it: the mere contact triggers really terrible convulsions. The jaws open, the teeth chatter, the eyes roll in their sockets; and if reason did not stop the fired imagination, one would almost believe that the animal is suffering and alive again".
(1756–1826)
Luigi Aloisio Galvani (9 September 1737 – 4 December 1798) was an Italian physician, physicist, biologist, and philosopher, who discovered animal electricity.
Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (1745 – 1827) was an Italian physicist, chemist, and a pioneer of electricity and power, who is credited as the inventor of the electric battery and the discoverer of methane. He inspired Giovanni Aldini in his experiments.
