page_title: Galvanism
hierarchical_section_title: Galvanism
caption_attribution_description: English: Rising of a corpse galvanized by a primitive galvanic battery. A pedestrian throws his arms in the air because of shock, saying: 'Had I not been born insensible to fear, now should I be most horribly afraid. Hence! horrible shadow! unreal mockery. Hence! And yet it stays: can it be real. How it grows! How malignity and venom are "blended in cadaverous union" in its countenance! It must surely be a "galvanized corpse." But what do I feel? The thing begins to draw me . . . I can't withstand it. I shall hug it! . . . ' Two demons in the left down corner discussing. First demon: "There! We've lost him, after all! See! they are bringing him to life again!" Second demon: (holding a copy of Blair's newspaper, the "Globe)": "Lose him! ha ha! . . . Rest you easy on that score. But can't you see that it's all for our gain that he should be galvanized into activity again? Where have we his equal on earth? especially since dear Amos [Kendall], poor fellow, has got his hands so full, at the Post Office, that he can't write for us as he used to. Show me another man that can lie like him. They talk of Croswell [influential editor of the "Albany Argus" and Van Buren ally Edwin Croswell] but Harry is nothing to him. I doubt if I can beat him myself. Lose him! a good joke that!"
context_page_description: Galvanism is a term invented by the late 18th C. physicist and chemist, Alessandro Volta, to refer to the generation of electrical current by chemical action. The term also came to refer to the discoveries of its namesake, Luigi Galvani, specifically the generation of electrical current within biological organisms and the contraction/convulsion of biological muscle tissue upon contact with electrical current. While Volta theorized and later demonstrated the phenomenon of his "Galvanism" to be replicable with otherwise inert materials, Galvani thought his discovery to be a confirmation of the existence "animal electricity," a vital force which gave life to organic matter.
context_section_description: Galvanism is a term invented by the late 18th C. physicist and chemist, Alessandro Volta, to refer to the generation of electrical current by chemical action. The term also came to refer to the discoveries of its namesake, Luigi Galvani, specifically the generation of electrical current within biological organisms and the contraction/convulsion of biological muscle tissue upon contact with electrical current. While Volta theorized and later demonstrated the phenomenon of his "Galvanism" to be replicable with otherwise inert materials, Galvani thought his discovery to be a confirmation of the existence "animal electricity," a vital force which gave life to organic matter.
caption: Cartoon of a galvanized corpse
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