GALVA'NI, Lumr, a famous physician and anatomist, was b. at Bologna, Sept. 9, 178Z At an early age, he evinced a strong inclination to devote himself to a monastic life, and his studies in the university of Bologna were, with this view, chiefly directed to scholastic philosophy, rather than to general science. Swayed. however, by the per suasion of his friends. he relinquished his intention of entering the church, and deter mined to follow the pro.fessiOn of modicitie, &electing for speCial investigation the depart ments of physiology and comparative anatomy. At this time, he enjoyed the benefit of studying under some of the most eminent medical professors of the day—Beeca•ia, Tac coni, and Galeazzi, whose talented daughter he subsequently married. So distinguished by his knowledge and ability did he soon become, that in 1762 he was elected professor of anatomy in the institute of his native city, when his IectureS, although not remark able for eloquence, were clear, accurate, and comprehensive, and enjoyed much popu larity. His writings are not numerous, but all contain valuable scientific matter, and are characterized by a rare precision and minuteness of details. Two treatises, which added considerably to his reputation, are—Considerations on the Urinary Organs, and On the Organs of Hearing of Birds. But to a purely casual discovery G. owes the wide
celebrity attached to his name. Many versions of this circumstance have obtained cre dence; but the simple fact seems to be, that G.'s wife, a woman of penetrating intellect, happened one day to witness with surprise the convulsive muscular movements produced in a skinned frog by its inanimate body having been accidentally brought into contact with a scalpel which lay ou the table, and had become charged by contact with an adjoining electrical machine. She hastened to communicate the interesting phenomenon to her husband, who at ouce instituted a prolonged series of experiments. See GALVANISM, and ELECTRICITY, ANIMAL. G. died Dec. 4, 1793. Some time previously, he bad lost in his wife a cherished companion, and was deprived of all his public emoluments, in consequence of liis refusal to take the oaths prescribed by the Cisalpine republic, of which Bologna then formed a part. His writings have been chiefly published in the memoirs of the Bologna institute of sciences, including the most remarkable production of his pen, the treatise entitled De Viribus Electricitatis in Motu. Husculari Conwientarius.