Luigi Galvani was an Italian anatomist who, through his discovery that the legs of frogs would move when touched by two different metals, essentially founded the study of current electricity, also contributing significantly to the field of animal physiology. He was born in Bologna, in the Papal States (now Italy) on September 9, 1737. Galvani received a medical degree from the University of Bologna in 1762, where he was named Professor of Anatomy and Gynecology in 1775. In 1797, when Bologna fell to the French, Galvani lost his professorship because he refused to become a sworn supporter of Napoleon. He died the following year, in poverty.

Scientists had been experimenting with static electricity for more than a century by the time Galvani conducted his frog leg experiments. Knowing that an electric spark could provoke movement in live muscle tissue, Galvani noticed, while dissecting a frog, that nerve action/muscle movement was induced by...