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#1
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09-28-2011, 02:18 AM
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 ✖ The Antique Christ ✖ Poster Rank:105 Gonzo Punk Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 15,488
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Giovanni Aldini, The Real Frankenstein
Among the inspirations for Mary Shelley's gothic classic 'Frankenstein' from 1818 were the (in)famous experiments carried out in public by the physicist Giovanni Aldini (1762-1834) at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1803. In 1791, Luigi Galvani discovered that the muscles of dead frogs legs twitched when struck by a spark. This was one of the first forays into the study of bioelectricity, a field that still today studies the electrical patterns and signals of the nervous system. Giovanni Aldini (April 10, 1762 – January 17, 1834), Italian physicist born at Bologna, was the nephew of Luigi Galvani, whose treatise on muscular electricity he edited with notes in 1791. He became professor of physics at Bologna in 1798, in succession to his teacher Sebastiano Canterzani (1734-1819). His scientific work was chiefly concerned with galvanism 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. Giovanni Aldini was the greatest of all Galvani’s supporters. He 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 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. An eyewitness reported: "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". 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. A very ample series of experiments were made by Professor Aldini which show the eminent and superior power of galvanism beyond any other stimulant in nature. In the months of January and February last, he had the courage to apply it at Bologna to the bodies of various criminals who had suffered death at that place, and by means of the pile he excited the remaining vital forces in a most astonishing manner. This stimulus produced the most horrible contortions and grimaces by the motions of the muscles of the head and face; and an hour and a quarter after death, the arm of one of the bodies was elevated eight inches from the table on which it was supported, and this even when a considerable weight was placed in the hand. The most famous experiment took place at the Royal College of Surgeons in London in 1803, on a hanged man named George Forster. George Forster was hung at 8am on 18th January 1803 at Newgate Prison, for the drowning of his wife and youngest child in the Paddington Canal. After hanging for an hour in sub-zero temperatures, Aldini procured the body and began his galvanic experiments. On the first application of the process to the face, the jaws of the deceased criminal began to quiver, and the adjoining muscles were horribly contorted, and one eye was actually opened. In the subsequent part of the process the right hand was raised and clenched, and the legs and thighs were set in motion. Mr Pass, the beadle of the Surgeons’ Company, who was officially present during this experiment, was so alarmed that he died of fright soon after his return home.  ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  · |
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#2
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09-28-2011, 02:22 AM
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| ✖ The Antique Christ ✖ Poster Rank:105 Gonzo Punk Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 15,488
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Re: Giovanni Aldini, The Real Frankenstein
"Galvanic Experiments on The Dead Body of a Criminal"
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#3
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09-28-2011, 02:30 AM
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| ✖ The Antique Christ ✖ Poster Rank:105 Gonzo Punk Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 15,488
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Re: Giovanni Aldini, The Real Frankenstein
A satirical political cartoon from 1836 titled, "A GALVANIZED CORPSE". This cartoon has nothing to do with Aldini, but it does show the fear people of the time had of galvanization.  · |
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#10
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09-28-2011, 08:37 PM
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| ✖ The Antique Christ ✖ Poster Rank:105 Gonzo Punk Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 15,488
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Re: Giovanni Aldini, The Real Frankenstein
I've got a set up in my basement and I would gladly give you an up close and personal demonstration. If you're willing to be hands on that is. And an advanced "Fuck You" to whomever posts any gay reference directed at this comment.  |
