Galvani’s nephew, Giovanni Aldini, conducted various experiments with galvanic stimulation of animals and human cadavers, obtaining impressive muscle contractions. The cadavers used were those of criminals condemned to death by the guillotine, as the same sentence ordered that the bodies be dissected afterward, supposedly to prevent their resurrection on Judgment Day.
In his experiments with freshly decapitated heads, Aldini found that the passage of an electric current, either through the ear and mouth or through the exposed brain and mouth, produced various facial contractions. The fresher the head, the more easily these contractions occurred.
After his experiments with cadavers, Aldini began experimenting on volunteers and patients, applying the current from voltaic cells. After experimenting on himself, with electrodes in both ears or in one ear and the mouth, or on the forehead and nose, he experienced a strong reaction (“une fort action”), followed by prolonged insomnia that lasted for several days. He considered the experience very unpleasant but suggested that the changes produced in the brain could be beneficial in psychoses (“la folie”). Passing currents between the ears produced pain and violent convulsions, but he reported good results in patients suffering from melancholy.
Aldini did not have instruments to measure the intensity of the applied currents (he only recorded the number of copper and zinc disks in the voltaic cell).
According to some literary experts, his experiments may have inspired Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein…
Source: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: A Primer. Amazon e-book.
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