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The two-hundredth anniversary of the death of Luigi Galvani (1732–1798), famed discoverer of animal electricity and professor of anatomy at the University of Bologna, provided an occasion to launch a rigorous and in-depth study of his work and multifarious scientific activity. Thanks to the many initiatives conducted in this direction, enriched by others held on the occasion of the anniversaries of the deaths of Lazzaro Spallanzani (1799) and Alessandro Volta (1799) it is now possible to render a reliable and detailed picture of Galvani’s personality and theories.

In eighteenth-century Britain, research on vision was conducted in the context of either optics or medicine, and both were influenced by philosophy. These threads were woven together by William Porterfield (ca. 1696–1771) in his essays on eye movements and in his treatise on the eye and vision. The scene for investigating vision was set by Isaac Newton (1642–1727) in the first decade of the century with his (Newton, 1704). The Newtonian mould was loosened by Thomas Young (1773–1829) in the last decade with his initial observations on vision (Young, 1793). Newton and Young adopted contrasting theories of light; Newton’s (1704) theory was based on its corpuscular properties whereas Young (1800, 1802) provided further evidence (mainly from studies of interference) for its action as a wave. Despite the controversies in physical optics, their studies of visual optics had much in common (Wade, 1998). They examined the image forming properties of the eye similarly and their analyses of errors of refraction were in accord.

In the mid-eighteenth century David Hartley published a treatise that combined ideas about the psychology of mental associations with conjectures drawn broadly from neuroanatomy, mechanics, optics and electricity. Recognizing that a complete mechanistic theory must consider not only causally related mental associations but also their physiological substrates, Hartley conceived of neural activity as vibrations, suggested earlier by Isaac Newton, Thomas Willis, Pierre Gassendi and others (Buckingham & Finger, 1997; Finger, 1994; Glassman & Spadafora, 1997; Robinson, 1995; Smith, 1987; Wallace, 2003). Hartley approached the mind/brain issue by bridging causal concepts, not localizing psychological functions except to imply that the input vibrations of distinct sensory modalities would likely terminate in different parts of the sensorium (Aubert & Whitaker, 1996).

Isaac Newton’s concept that auditory and visual images were transmitted by vibrations and that these vibrations were transduced to vibrations in nerves, built upon earlier ideas of vibrations in nerves by Pierre Gassendi and Thomas Willis, likely in contrast to Cartesian “hydraulic” models of mechanical pressure (Wallace, 2003). Newtonian “vibrations” strongly influenced David Hartley’s neuropsychology (Glassman & Buckingham, 2007; Smith, 1987); less often discussed is the movement or “vibration” model of Charles Bonnet, a rather more elaborated mid-eighteenth century model of the internal representation of ideas. Bonnet, a Swiss naturalist and philosopher, proposed in an original fashion that an understanding of animal and human behavior requires, first, knowledge of how the nervous system functions.

Present-day concepts of cerebral, localized, motor areas commenced with a set of stimulation experiments with anaesthetised dogs done by two German physicians, Fritsch and Hitzig (1870). Applying weak electrical pulses to exposed cerebral cortex, they were able to evoke muscular contractions in the opposite body half. They varied stimulation intensity, and established its lowest effective magnitude, or threshold strength. This stimulation intensity was selected in order to avoid activation of deep structures, and they could see how muscle groups on different parts of the contralateral body half were activated from different spots on the cortical surface. Similar effects were obtained from roughly the same locations in different animals. Forelimb and facial muscles were activated from spots located lateral to those of hindlimb muscles. In their paper’s introductory survey of earlier and contemporary publications, the two authors made it clear that the findings were contrary to established opinion. Neither the possibility of cortical activation, nor cortical localization of function were definitely known to exist, although sometimes surmised. The findings were not accepted immediately, but started a great number of tests internationally, and in short time engendered an atmosphere of electric excitement, to paraphrase Young (1970).

After his medical preparation with Professor Duverney in Tübingen (Germany), Albrecht von Haller (1708–1778) started a peregrination through Europe. The first country where he stayed was Holland. His motivation to visit Leiden probably included his reading of Boerhaave’s (1708), which had a physiological character (Lindeboom, 1958, p. 14). Haller’s impression of the first lecture by Boerhaave he attended was quite positive. “I listened to him from 1725 to 1727 for somewhat more than two years. I remember that I was filled with an unbelievable delight, when I heard him explain for the first time the true medicine with extraordinarily charming eloquence.”

At that time, Herman Boerhaave (1668–1738) was at the height of his career as professor of botany and medicine (since 1709) and chemistry (1718) at Leiden University. When Haller left Holland, he had finished his thesis and continued his studies in London and Paris. After his return he started a detailed commentary on Boerhaave’s and in 1736, he was called to Göttingen as professor of anatomy, surgery, and botany. As we shall see, Boerhaave had an important influence on young Haller, who adopted a part of his teaching and in other parts disagreed and tried to prove his new insights. In this chapter, I shall discuss the neuroscience in the work of these two important eighteenth-century physicians, Europe’s principle medical teacher and his pupil, who was to become the most important physiologist of the period.

In the eighteenth century, apoplexy was the term used to describe a clinical presentation rather than a single disease entity – a sudden catastrophic event characterised by a loss of consciousness, movement and sensation. Many of the conditions that would have been described under the term apoplexy are incorporated into what is now referred to as stroke. This chapter will explore the changes in the understanding of this spectrum of diseases included in the term as well as the shifts in the actual use of the term during the eighteenth century.

The eighteenth century was the century of the Enlightenment, a movement that permeated all aspects of life in Europe and her colonies, yet one with deep roots in the previous century (Outram, 1995; Porter, 1990, 2000). In natural philosophy, the drive to understand the mysteries of nature, including human nature, was strongly influenced by Francis Bacon’s (1561–1626) call for better instruments, more detailed observations, careful experiments, and reasoning with clear eyes and unbiased minds (Bacon, 1620, 2000; Pérez-Ramos, 1988). In medicine, Thomas Sydenham (1624–1689) recognized the merit of Bacon’s philosophy and, although he did not live into the eighteenth-century, his more data-driven approach to bedside medicine attracted many younger followers (Dewhurst, 1966; Sydenham, 1848, 1850).

The idea that electricity might have a place in mainstream medicine represented one of the most significant therapeutic developments in the eighteenth century. By looking at articles written or sponsored by Fellows of the Royal Society in the and by examining what was written by the leadership of other elite organizations, one can begin to appreciate what the academy physicians were encountering, discovering, and believing. Still, this more traditional approach is limited in scope.

In 1731, businessman Edward Cave began publication of a magazine that would include news and potentially useful information for the broader British public. He targeted inquisitive people in cities and rural areas who wanted to keep abreast of new developments, including medical breakthroughs. Moreover, his innovative welcomed submissions and commentary from his readers, even if they were not college educated or members of prestigious societies.

Cave’s publication is often regarded as the first modern magazine. But of even greater importance to medical historians, it also provides a unique glimpse of how new developments in medicine were perceived and reported by “nonacademy” practitioners, observers, and even patients. In this chapter, we shall present what people read about medical electricity in from 1745, when the new treatment began to be made public, to 1760, by which time it had become one of the most popular fads in the history of medicine. Our emphasis will be on disorders of the nervous system, which then included not just strokes and other neurological disorders, but also hysteria.

The basic idea behind Cave’s new magazine was that it would present rural and urban news, as well as other types of articles, under a single cover, so that the gentlemanly reader could get everything in one place, rather than having to buy several city and country newspapers (Carlson, 1938, pp. 29–30). As its chief editor, Cave took the of Sylvanus Urban. Sylvanus was the Roman god of the woods and Urban referred to . This was just one way for Cave to show that he wanted his new publication to be relevant to people in both the city and the countryside.

has been hailed as the first modern magazine, and it might well have been the most important periodical for readers of English during the volatile eighteenth century. Yet because its innovations were so successful, it soon engendered competition.

In the past few decades a number of studies dealing with eighteenth-century natural philosophy in England have pointed out its inextricable links with spectacle and public display. The commodification of cultural products, which was one of the main features of the Enlightenment, extended to science and scientific instruments, textbooks, and demonstrations, as well as to medicine. Pivotal works by Roy Porter have indelibly portrayed the vibrant marketplace in which medical practitioners operated. Even when they had a formal degree, “regular” healers had to compete both with “irregulars” and with a widespread culture of self-treatment (Porter, 1985, 1990, 1995; Porter & Porter, 1989; Schaffer, 1983; Stewart, 1992). In such competitive arena recently invented therapies attracted the attention of both patients and practitioners. From the 1740s onward, “medical electricity” was among the most attractive ones. The term indicated the applications of electric shocks and sparks to the treatment of various diseases, in particular palsies and “nerve disorders.”

Electrical healing was first presented to the eighteenth-century public as a branch of experimental philosophy (Bertucci, 2001a). This essay analyzes the early diffusion of medical electricity, setting it in the context of the experimental culture from which it emerged. I deal with a relatively short span of time – the few decades during which almost instantaneously medical electricity came to be practiced in different European states – and I highlight the role played by itinerant demonstrators and instrument-makers in spreading what would soon become a fashionable, though controversial, healing practice.