A classic experiment in electricity, leading to the discovery of current
or dynamic electricity. If a pair of legs of a recently killed frog are
prepared with the lumbar nerves exposed near the base of the spinal
column, and if a metallic conductor, one half-length zinc and the other
half-length copper, is held, one end between the lumbar nerves and the
spine, and the other end against one of the muscles of the thigh or
lower legs, the moment contact occurs and the circuit is completed
through the animal substance the muscles contract and the leg is
violently drawn upwards. Galvani, in 1786, first performed, by accident,
this famous experiment, it is said, with a scalpel with which he was
dissecting the animal. He gave his attention to the nerves and muscles.
Volta, more happily, gave his attention to the metals and invented the
voltaic battery, described by him in a letter to Sir Joseph Banks, dated
1800.