Dr. Luigi Galvani was a Professor of Anatomy in Bologna, Italy. He made his discoveries in about the year 1790. His wife, being ill was advised to take some soup made of the flesh of frogs. Several of these animals, recently skinned for that purpose, were lying on a table in his laboratory, near an electrical machine, with which a pupil of the professor was amusing himself in trying experiments. While the machine was in action, the student chanced to touch the bare nerve of the leg of one of the frogs with the blade of a knife that he held in his hand, when suddenly the whole limb was thrown into violent convulsions. Galvani being informed of the fact, repeated the experiment, and examined minutely all the circumstances connected with it.

Frogs legs being prepared with 2 different metals.

Galvani hanging frogs legs on the iron railings by his house.

Galvani suspended the frog's legs with brass hooks from an electrical railing during a thunderstorm. He noted that the muscles would contract not only when lightning appeared, but also when they were absent.

Muscle contraction appeared when the muscle preparation was put into contact with two different metals, indoors or outdoors.