GALVANI, LUIGI

born Sept. 9, 1737, Bologna, Papal States died Dec. 4, 1798, Bologna, Cisalpine Republic Italian physician and physicist who investigated the nature and effects of what he conceived to be electricity in animal tissue. His discoveries led to the invention of the voltaic pile, a kind of battery that makes possible a constant source of current electricity. Additional reading Luigi Galvani, Opere edite ed inedite del professore Luigi Galvani (1841) and Aggiunta, ed. by Silvestro Gherardi (1842), comprise a prime reference; Memorie ed esperimenti inediti di Luigi Galvani (1937), Galvani's laboratory notes; Commentary on the Effect of Electricity on Muscular Motion (1953), an English translation of Galvani's De Viribus Electricitatis in Motu Musculari Commentarius (1791), with facsimile of the Latin text, an introduction by I. Bernard Cohen, and an extensive bibliography; C. Mesini, Luigi Galvani (1958), a clear and scholarly modern study (in Italian).