Giovanni Aldini


Giovanni Aldini was an Italian physician and physicist born in Bologna. He is considered a pioneer in the field of electrophysiology.

Biography

Giovanni Aldini was born in Bologna on 10 April 1762. He was a brother of the statesman Count Antonio Aldini, secretary of state for the Kingdom of Italy between 1805 and 1814. He graduated in physics at University of Bologna in 1782. In 1798, he became professor of experimental physics at University of Bologna, in succession to his uncle Luigi Galvani.
Aldini's scientific work was chiefly concerned with galvanism, anatomy 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. He wrote in French and English in addition to his native Italian, and in Latin, still used in the 18th century by the scientific community.
Aldini was one of the earliest and most active members of the National Institute of Italy, to the foundation of which he contributed. In recognition of his merits, the emperor of Austria made him a Knight of the Iron Crown and a councillor of state at Milan. Aldini spent the last years of his life in Milan, where he died on 17 January 1834, at the age of 71. He bequeathed a considerable sum to found a school of natural science for artisans at Bologna.

Experiments

Aldini's most famous public demonstration of the electro-stimulation technique of deceased limbs was performed on the executed criminal George Forster at Newgate in London in 1803. The Newgate Calendar describes what happened when the galvanic process was used on the body:
Aldini's experiment created a sensation since it seemed to demonstrate that electricity could be used to revive the deceased.

Shelley's Frankenstein association

Although Mary Shelley was just 5 years old when Foster was executed, it has been suggested that Aldini might have been the inspiration for her famous fictional character Victor Frankenstein. Shelley was well read in the sciences and her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley was an amateur chemist. In her introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein, she does not mention Aldini, but "galvanism" was among the evening discussion topics before she experienced her "waking dream" that led to her writing. Chapter 5, the creature awakened:

Selected works

  • De viribus electricitatis in motu musculari commentarius cum I. A. dissertatione et notis, Modena, 1792.
  • Précis des expériences galvaniques, Paris, 1803; an account of some experiments made by Aldini, principally upon the bodies of dead animals. This work was translated from the French manuscript into English, and published under the title An Account of the late improvements in Galvanism, by John Aldini, London, 1803, with an appendix, containing experiments upon the bodies of executed criminals, performed by Aldini in Newgate and Bologna.
  • General Views on the Application of Galvanism to Medical Purposes; Principally in Cases of Suspended Animation, London, 1819. The treatise explores the potential of electricity to revive individuals in a state of suspended animation.