assistants touched the inner crural nerve of the frog with the point of a scalpel; whereupon at once the muscles of the limbs were violently convulsed.
“Another of those who used to help me in electrical experiments thought he had noticed that at this instant a spark was drawn from the conductor of the machine. I myself was at the time occupied with a totally different matter; but when he drew my attention to this, I greatly desired to try it for myself, and discover its hidden principle. So I, too, touched one or other of the crural nerves with the point of the scalpel, at the same time that one of those present drew a spark; and the same phenomenon was repeated exactly as before."[1]
After this, Galvani conceived the idea of trying whether the electricity of thunderstorms would induce muscular contractions equally well with the electricity of the machine. Having successfully experimented with lightning, he “wished," as he writes,[2] “to try the effect of atmospheric electricity in calm weather. My reason for this was an observation I had made, that frogs which had been suitably prepared for these experiments and fastened, by brass hooks in the spinal marrow, to the iron lattice round a certain hanging-garden at my house, exhibited convulsions not only during thunderstorms, but sometimes even when the sky was quite serene. I suspected these effects to be due to the changes which take place during the day in the electric state of the atmosphere, and so, with some degree of confidence, I performed experiments to test the point; and at different hours for many days I watched frogs: which I had disposed for the purpose; but could not detect any motion in their muscles. At length, weary of waiting in vain, I pressed the brass hooks, which were driven into the spinal marrow, against the iron lattice, in order to sec whether contractions could be excited by varying the incidental circum-
