[4] Galvani was a professor of anatomy in the university of
Bologna. While engaged in his anatomical investigations he observed,
accidently so to say, that when the lumbar nerves of a dead frog
were connected with the crural muscles by a metallic circuit, the
latter became briskly contracted. The electricity theory drawn by
Galvani from his observation of the frog was chiefly opposed by the
philosopher likewise here mentioned, Alexander Volta, professor of
physics in Pavia.