Shocking Frogs

ForewordAuthors' preface to the Italian editionAuthors' preface to the English editionAcknowledgments1. Galvani, Volta and the forgotten electrophysiology2. "Truth and usefulness": medicine and natural philosophy in the eighteenth century2.1 Galvani's education in Bologna: the University, the Institute of Sciences, and the hospitals2.2. Galvani's professional career2.3 Galvani's early anatomo-physiological investigation3. Animal spirits, vital forces, and electricity: nervous conduction and muscular motion in the eighteenth century3.1 The debate on Hallerian irritability3.2 The study of electricity in the eighteenth century3.3. "Artificial" electricity, "natural" electricity and their role in the human body3.4. Electric fish4. Artificial electricity, the spark, and the nervous fluid: Galvani's early research on muscular motion4.1 The beginning of electrophysiological experimentation4.2. A "problematic" turn: the observation of contractions at a distance4.3. Galvani's Saggio sulla forza nervea of 17825. A "fortunate" discovery: Galvani's theory of animal electricity5.1. The study of "airs" in relation to the living organism5.2. The effects of atmospheric electricity on muscular motion and the discovery of metal arcs5.3. The model of the muscle as an animal Leyden jar5.4. The final elaboration of the theory of animal electricity6. The controversy between Galvani and Volta over animal electricity: the first stage6.1. Galvani's work in the scientific culture of the late eighteenth century6.2 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 electricity7. The controversy between Galvani and Volta over animal electricity: the second stage7.1. Volta's "general theory of contact electricity"7.2. Galvani's reply to Volta's criticisms and the1797 Memorie sulla elettricità animale7.3 Galvani's research on electric fish and the various forms of electricity7.4 The conclusion of the Galvani-Volta controversy8. The electrophysiological work of Alessandro Volta8.1 Volta and life sciences8.2 Volta's research on sensations8.3 Sensation and muscular motion in Volta's "chain" experiments8.4 Volta's research on electric fishes and the invention of the electric battery9. From Galvani to Hodgkin and beyond: the central problem of electrophysiology in the last two centuries9.1 Measuring animal electricity9.2 Nervous conduction: propagated electric signal and the firing of a train of gun-powder9.3. The involvement of animal electricity in nerve conduction demonstrated10. Neuromuscular excitability: the modern explanation10.1 Cell membrane and ions: a machine generating electric potentials10.2. The electric mechanism of nerve conduction and muscle excitation11. Concluding remarksBibliography