brought into contact or were connected through another metal or
through the human body, the muscles would contract as they
would when stimulated by electricity.

Galvani concluded that the contraction in this case, as in the
earlier experiments, was produced by an electric stimulation,
and since the metals seemed to him to serve merely as the
conductors of the electric discharge, he concluded that the
source of the electricity must be in the tissues of the animal
body. This seemed all the more probable since it was known that
certain fishes and an electric eel were capable of giving
violent electric shocks. This electricity of the eels and
fishes had been named animal electricity, and Galvani concluded
that all animals were capable of producing this electricity in
the tissues of their bodies.

He believed this electricity was to be found in various parts
of the body, but that it was especially collected in the nerves
and muscles. The especial property of this animal electricity
seemed to be that it discharged from the nerves into the
muscles, or in the contrary direction, and that to effect this
discharge it would take the path of least resistance through
the metal conductor or through the human body. Since during
this discharge the muscle was caused to contract, Galvani
concluded that the purpose of this animal electricity was to
produce muscular contractions.

Galvani seems to have concerned himself principally with the
physiological processes which he believed gave rise to the
electric charges, but physicists began immediately to seek for