1 00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:03,760 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from how 2 00:00:03,800 --> 00:00:13,720 Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:16,080 Speaker 1: I'm to bling a truck reboarding and I'm fair Dowdy 4 00:00:16,280 --> 00:00:18,880 Speaker 1: and we've covered a lot of spooky ground so far 5 00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:23,480 Speaker 1: this October, from serial killers to sorcerers, to spiritual mediums 6 00:00:23,480 --> 00:00:26,480 Speaker 1: and the ghosts they talked to, and so now it's 7 00:00:26,480 --> 00:00:28,840 Speaker 1: time for us to enter the world of the spooky 8 00:00:28,920 --> 00:00:34,120 Speaker 1: science Lab. You probably have some experience with this if 9 00:00:34,120 --> 00:00:36,160 Speaker 1: you've ever been to a haunted house and you've gone 10 00:00:36,159 --> 00:00:38,520 Speaker 1: into that section where they have like the bowls full 11 00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:41,960 Speaker 1: of grapes that are like well, yeah, they're like eyeballs 12 00:00:42,040 --> 00:00:43,720 Speaker 1: or something and you stick your hand in them, or 13 00:00:44,240 --> 00:00:49,400 Speaker 1: a mad scientists pulling out the sausage links out of 14 00:00:49,400 --> 00:00:52,320 Speaker 1: the You've never seen that. No, I've actually done haunted 15 00:00:52,320 --> 00:00:54,800 Speaker 1: hof kind of like that myself. We did that like 16 00:00:54,920 --> 00:00:57,319 Speaker 1: you created it. Yeah, in my friends basement we had 17 00:00:57,360 --> 00:01:00,760 Speaker 1: the great eyeballs and the sketty and everything impressive, the 18 00:01:00,840 --> 00:01:04,720 Speaker 1: best with the skeleton in the thump pump. So in 19 00:01:04,800 --> 00:01:08,119 Speaker 1: the spooky science Lab, that's where these so called mad 20 00:01:08,200 --> 00:01:11,640 Speaker 1: scientists types explore and push the very limits of what 21 00:01:11,680 --> 00:01:14,680 Speaker 1: it means to be human and sometimes end up playing 22 00:01:14,680 --> 00:01:17,080 Speaker 1: god in the process, so a little bit more serious 23 00:01:17,120 --> 00:01:21,080 Speaker 1: than your average haunted house scenario, of course. One of 24 00:01:21,120 --> 00:01:24,399 Speaker 1: the most famous stories that exemplifies this is Frankenstein, a 25 00:01:24,480 --> 00:01:28,600 Speaker 1: novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley published in eighteen eighteen and 26 00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:32,839 Speaker 1: generally just basics here. It's about a scientist named Victor 27 00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:37,040 Speaker 1: Frankenstein who attempts to create artificial life by piecing together 28 00:01:37,240 --> 00:01:41,640 Speaker 1: dead body parts and administering some sort of life spark. 29 00:01:42,200 --> 00:01:45,480 Speaker 1: He ends up, though, creating a monster, and the story 30 00:01:45,840 --> 00:01:49,200 Speaker 1: has been adapted several times for film, stage, and TV productions. 31 00:01:49,200 --> 00:01:52,240 Speaker 1: I'm sure everyone's probably seen some sort of rendition of it. Well. 32 00:01:52,280 --> 00:01:54,280 Speaker 1: In just a couple of years ago, Katie and I 33 00:01:54,360 --> 00:01:57,360 Speaker 1: talked about Mary Shelley's experience and coming up with the story. 34 00:01:57,360 --> 00:02:01,080 Speaker 1: It involved a stay at Lord Byron's pill Law and Switzerland, 35 00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:05,000 Speaker 1: during which bad weather kept the small group of friends 36 00:02:05,040 --> 00:02:09,239 Speaker 1: and writers homebound, and Byron ended up issuing a ghost 37 00:02:09,320 --> 00:02:15,040 Speaker 1: story writing contest challenge, and the author, Mary Wilson Croft Shelley, 38 00:02:15,280 --> 00:02:17,680 Speaker 1: later said that the idea of for Frankenstein came to 39 00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:21,400 Speaker 1: her in a dream. Here specifically, what she said I 40 00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:24,960 Speaker 1: saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out and 41 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:28,680 Speaker 1: then on the working of some powerful engine, shows signs 42 00:02:28,680 --> 00:02:32,480 Speaker 1: of life and stir with an easy, half vital motion. 43 00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:36,040 Speaker 1: Frightful it must be, for supremely frightful would be the 44 00:02:36,040 --> 00:02:39,960 Speaker 1: effect of any human endeavor to mock the stupendous mechanism 45 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:42,960 Speaker 1: of the creator of the world. Yeah, so, as you 46 00:02:42,960 --> 00:02:46,520 Speaker 1: guys pointed out, it's quite likely that the idea was 47 00:02:46,600 --> 00:02:50,959 Speaker 1: influenced not just by a dream but by actual talk 48 00:02:51,160 --> 00:02:53,600 Speaker 1: of scientific experiments that were going on in the early 49 00:02:54,480 --> 00:02:58,960 Speaker 1: late night talks. But whose experiments were they talking about. Well, 50 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:01,480 Speaker 1: it turns out that there were many scientists during this 51 00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:06,160 Speaker 1: period whose work involved reanimating dead animals and even humans. 52 00:03:06,480 --> 00:03:08,679 Speaker 1: More than one of them has gotten credit for being 53 00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:11,760 Speaker 1: the inspiration for Shelley's Dr Frankenstein over the years. So 54 00:03:11,760 --> 00:03:14,000 Speaker 1: we're going to take a look at a couple, but 55 00:03:14,120 --> 00:03:19,440 Speaker 1: particularly Giovanni Aldini. Aldini started experimenting with human corpses in 56 00:03:19,440 --> 00:03:22,480 Speaker 1: the early eighteen hundreds, and his most famous experiment had 57 00:03:22,560 --> 00:03:26,480 Speaker 1: many people thinking, well, maybe you can actually bring someone 58 00:03:26,520 --> 00:03:30,000 Speaker 1: back to life. And his experiments became widely known and 59 00:03:30,040 --> 00:03:36,400 Speaker 1: they were almost like performances, really scary disturbing performance gory performances, 60 00:03:36,520 --> 00:03:40,640 Speaker 1: and he ultimately, however, made some concrete contributions to medical 61 00:03:40,680 --> 00:03:43,440 Speaker 1: science through these But before we get into all that, 62 00:03:43,760 --> 00:03:47,960 Speaker 1: we should talk about Aldini's inspiration his uncle Luigi Galvanni, 63 00:03:48,040 --> 00:03:52,200 Speaker 1: whose discovery kind of kicked off this whole Frankenstein era exactly. So. 64 00:03:52,320 --> 00:03:56,520 Speaker 1: Luigi Galvani was born in Bologna, Italy, in seventeen thirty 65 00:03:56,520 --> 00:03:59,960 Speaker 1: seven and studied medicine in the seventeen fifties according to 66 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:02,520 Speaker 1: of his father's wishes, so he ended up becoming a 67 00:04:02,600 --> 00:04:06,120 Speaker 1: lecturer in anatomy at the University of Bologna and a 68 00:04:06,200 --> 00:04:10,680 Speaker 1: professor of obstetrics at the separate Institute of Arts and 69 00:04:10,720 --> 00:04:14,280 Speaker 1: Sciences by the early seventeen sixties, so a pretty good 70 00:04:14,360 --> 00:04:18,480 Speaker 1: solid career, and according to Encyclopedia Britannica, his early research 71 00:04:18,600 --> 00:04:22,360 Speaker 1: was in the area of comparative anatomy, so the structure 72 00:04:22,520 --> 00:04:26,160 Speaker 1: of the renal tubules, nasal mucosa in the middle ear, 73 00:04:26,240 --> 00:04:30,239 Speaker 1: stuff like that. Throughout the seventeen seventies, though, he started 74 00:04:30,279 --> 00:04:36,080 Speaker 1: to get more and more interested in physiology, specifically electro physiology, 75 00:04:36,279 --> 00:04:41,840 Speaker 1: or the study of the electrical aspects of physiological phenomena. Yes, 76 00:04:41,960 --> 00:04:44,720 Speaker 1: So he got an electrostatic machine and a Lindon jar, 77 00:04:44,839 --> 00:04:48,080 Speaker 1: which was a device used to storm static electricity, and 78 00:04:48,120 --> 00:04:52,279 Speaker 1: he started to dabble in muscular stimulation using electricity. In 79 00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:55,839 Speaker 1: seventeen eighty six, Galvani found that touching a frog's nerves 80 00:04:55,839 --> 00:04:58,600 Speaker 1: with a metal instrument during a thunderstore made the frog's 81 00:04:58,800 --> 00:05:03,240 Speaker 1: muscles contract, so it twitched. So he concluded that electricity 82 00:05:03,360 --> 00:05:06,640 Speaker 1: was the cause of the twitching, and he hypothesized, now 83 00:05:06,680 --> 00:05:10,080 Speaker 1: we know incorrectly, that it came from the frog's muscles 84 00:05:10,080 --> 00:05:13,360 Speaker 1: and nerve tissue. He did more experiments of this kind, 85 00:05:13,400 --> 00:05:16,520 Speaker 1: for example using an a scalpel touched to a nerve 86 00:05:16,680 --> 00:05:19,960 Speaker 1: while the electrostatic machine was activated, and he also got 87 00:05:19,960 --> 00:05:22,520 Speaker 1: the same result without the use of the machine. So 88 00:05:22,720 --> 00:05:25,520 Speaker 1: he hung a copper hook from an iron railing and 89 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:27,839 Speaker 1: pressed the hook to the frog's spinal cord, and it 90 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:31,320 Speaker 1: also moved because of that contact. So he published a 91 00:05:31,360 --> 00:05:35,360 Speaker 1: paper in sev called Commentary of the Effect of Electricity 92 00:05:35,400 --> 00:05:38,880 Speaker 1: on Muscular Motion, in which he concluded that animal tissue 93 00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:42,880 Speaker 1: contained this innate force called animal electricity, and in this 94 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:45,440 Speaker 1: theory of his he thought that the brain secreted this 95 00:05:45,520 --> 00:05:49,000 Speaker 1: electric fluid which the nerves carried to the muscles, and 96 00:05:49,040 --> 00:05:51,840 Speaker 1: then that fluid acted as a stimulus for the muscles. 97 00:05:52,279 --> 00:05:56,920 Speaker 1: And Galvani's views were pretty accepted, generally accepted at least 98 00:05:56,960 --> 00:06:00,080 Speaker 1: by a lot of scientists, but physicist Alesandro vole To 99 00:06:00,600 --> 00:06:03,719 Speaker 1: did not accept these ideas. He rejected the idea of 100 00:06:03,800 --> 00:06:07,599 Speaker 1: animal electricity and said that the source of electricity or 101 00:06:07,960 --> 00:06:12,320 Speaker 1: stimulus in Galvani's experiments had been the use of two 102 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:16,560 Speaker 1: dissimilar medals, and this caused a bit of controversy. But 103 00:06:16,640 --> 00:06:19,960 Speaker 1: Galvani didn't have much time to debate with Volta because 104 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:24,560 Speaker 1: in the seventeen nineties Galvani refused to swear allegiance to 105 00:06:24,640 --> 00:06:28,800 Speaker 1: Napoleon's new Republic, so he lost his faculty position and 106 00:06:28,920 --> 00:06:31,360 Speaker 1: his salary, and he ended up moving into the old 107 00:06:31,400 --> 00:06:33,920 Speaker 1: Galvani home with his brother, and he died there at 108 00:06:33,920 --> 00:06:38,680 Speaker 1: the age of sixty one in sevent The debate was 109 00:06:38,760 --> 00:06:42,520 Speaker 1: not over, however, no Galvani's work and this idea of 110 00:06:42,600 --> 00:06:47,360 Speaker 1: animal electricity or Galvinism didn't just fade away. Volta used 111 00:06:47,400 --> 00:06:52,400 Speaker 1: concepts from Galvani's experiments, specifically the electricity created by two 112 00:06:52,640 --> 00:06:57,360 Speaker 1: dissimilar metals thing to create his electric pile or voltake pile, 113 00:06:57,760 --> 00:07:00,560 Speaker 1: basically a battery of sort of prim the battery that 114 00:07:00,600 --> 00:07:04,840 Speaker 1: could provide a source of constant current electricity. Volta however, 115 00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:08,800 Speaker 1: still fundamentally disagreed with the idea of animal electricity, and 116 00:07:08,839 --> 00:07:11,280 Speaker 1: as we mentioned, this kicked off a huge debate among 117 00:07:11,360 --> 00:07:15,640 Speaker 1: intellectuals at the time. Even in life. Galvani himself, though, 118 00:07:15,760 --> 00:07:18,160 Speaker 1: was too reserved to really get involved in all of 119 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:21,960 Speaker 1: that exactly. He was a little more soft spoken than that, 120 00:07:22,040 --> 00:07:25,680 Speaker 1: but his somewhat spunk, your nephew, Giovanni Aldini stepped in 121 00:07:25,960 --> 00:07:29,440 Speaker 1: and kind of took up the torch for defending Galvinism. Now, 122 00:07:29,480 --> 00:07:33,840 Speaker 1: Aldini was born in Bologna on April sixteenth, seventeen sixty two, 123 00:07:34,160 --> 00:07:37,520 Speaker 1: and he had also chosen a scientific career path. He 124 00:07:37,560 --> 00:07:40,920 Speaker 1: studied physics at the University of Bologna, and after graduating 125 00:07:40,960 --> 00:07:43,720 Speaker 1: in seventeen eighty two, he became a research assistant for 126 00:07:43,760 --> 00:07:47,440 Speaker 1: his uncle and joined in on those frog experiments. When 127 00:07:47,520 --> 00:07:50,720 Speaker 1: what became known as the Galvani Volta controversy kicked off, 128 00:07:50,760 --> 00:07:54,160 Speaker 1: Aldini became really active in defense of his uncle's ideas. 129 00:07:54,560 --> 00:07:56,560 Speaker 1: So here's just a few examples of some of the 130 00:07:56,600 --> 00:08:00,000 Speaker 1: things that he did. He published responses to Volta's critics 131 00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:02,680 Speaker 1: sy isms, sometimes in the form of supplements to his 132 00:08:02,760 --> 00:08:07,600 Speaker 1: uncle's original commentary. He did experiments to demonstrate that some 133 00:08:07,720 --> 00:08:10,559 Speaker 1: muscular contraction and frogs can be obtained with one metal 134 00:08:10,600 --> 00:08:13,400 Speaker 1: only Volta just as an aside, he argued here that 135 00:08:13,440 --> 00:08:16,720 Speaker 1: the metal used, which was mercury, was probably contaminated and 136 00:08:16,760 --> 00:08:19,720 Speaker 1: actually did contain traces of another metal, and that's why 137 00:08:19,920 --> 00:08:22,920 Speaker 1: Aldni's experiment work. But the other thing that Aldini did 138 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:25,320 Speaker 1: is that he worked with Galvani in a series of 139 00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:28,240 Speaker 1: experiments in which no metal was used at all, so 140 00:08:28,440 --> 00:08:32,040 Speaker 1: they just used nerves touched to muscle and achieved muscle 141 00:08:32,040 --> 00:08:37,040 Speaker 1: contraction that way. After Galvani died in sevente Aldini accepted 142 00:08:37,160 --> 00:08:40,440 Speaker 1: the Bologna University Chair in physics, which came complete with 143 00:08:40,480 --> 00:08:43,400 Speaker 1: a pretty hefty teaching load, but that didn't stop him 144 00:08:43,480 --> 00:08:46,680 Speaker 1: from pursuing his work in Galvinism, not at all. He 145 00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:49,880 Speaker 1: founded the first Galvanic society in Bologna, and then he 146 00:08:49,960 --> 00:08:53,880 Speaker 1: started experimenting on warm blooded animals, so really taken it 147 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:56,840 Speaker 1: up a notch from frogs, worked on birds and calves 148 00:08:56,880 --> 00:09:00,000 Speaker 1: and oxen and according to a two thousand four article 149 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:04,440 Speaker 1: goal by Andre Parlon in the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences. 150 00:09:04,480 --> 00:09:09,960 Speaker 1: In one notable experiment involving an ox, Aldini applied direct 151 00:09:10,040 --> 00:09:13,120 Speaker 1: electrical current to different parts of an ox brain to 152 00:09:13,640 --> 00:09:18,400 Speaker 1: determine different brain regions sensitivity to galvinism. And this really 153 00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:22,920 Speaker 1: sparked an interest in using galvinism as a therapeutic tool, 154 00:09:22,960 --> 00:09:26,120 Speaker 1: you know, something more than just a neat experiment with 155 00:09:26,200 --> 00:09:31,319 Speaker 1: twitching frog legs. However, to test this out, Aldini needed 156 00:09:31,320 --> 00:09:35,200 Speaker 1: to experiment with using electricity on human cadavers. But at 157 00:09:35,240 --> 00:09:37,920 Speaker 1: the time it was illegal to exhume bodies from graves, 158 00:09:37,960 --> 00:09:41,200 Speaker 1: so when he conducted these experiments in January February of 159 00:09:41,280 --> 00:09:44,240 Speaker 1: eighteen o two, he used the bodies of three criminals 160 00:09:44,280 --> 00:09:48,160 Speaker 1: who had been killed by decapitation. Ironically, he ended up 161 00:09:48,240 --> 00:09:51,720 Speaker 1: using a voltaic pile to create the electric current. Quirk 162 00:09:51,800 --> 00:09:54,840 Speaker 1: of history. Yeah. He did the experiment in a large 163 00:09:54,880 --> 00:09:57,959 Speaker 1: public area located near Bologna's Palace of Justice. This is 164 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:01,520 Speaker 1: where the executions had taken place, and he applied the 165 00:10:01,559 --> 00:10:04,760 Speaker 1: electricity to different parts of the heads and the bodies 166 00:10:04,840 --> 00:10:09,479 Speaker 1: and was able to produce muscular contractions confirming the frog experiments. 167 00:10:10,240 --> 00:10:12,440 Speaker 1: After this, Aldini went on kind of a world tour 168 00:10:12,559 --> 00:10:16,280 Speaker 1: throughout Europe doing these sorts of experiments as demonstrations. They 169 00:10:16,280 --> 00:10:20,160 Speaker 1: were almost like shows, I mean, theatrical spectacles of a sort, 170 00:10:20,240 --> 00:10:23,800 Speaker 1: and Aldini became a really skilled performer in these. In 171 00:10:23,880 --> 00:10:26,760 Speaker 1: one before the Royal College of Surgeons in London, for example, 172 00:10:26,880 --> 00:10:29,280 Speaker 1: he cut the head off a dog and made the 173 00:10:29,320 --> 00:10:32,960 Speaker 1: current from a strong battery go through it. According to 174 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:36,080 Speaker 1: an eyewitness account in the June July issue of History magazine, 175 00:10:36,080 --> 00:10:39,600 Speaker 1: this caused quote the dog's jaws to open, the teeth 176 00:10:39,640 --> 00:10:43,040 Speaker 1: to chatter, the eyes to roll in their sockets. One 177 00:10:43,040 --> 00:10:46,520 Speaker 1: would almost believe the dog's head was alive again. And 178 00:10:46,640 --> 00:10:48,480 Speaker 1: like he said, he really did go on a tour 179 00:10:48,520 --> 00:10:51,320 Speaker 1: of Europe. He went to several European universities. While in 180 00:10:51,400 --> 00:10:54,200 Speaker 1: Paris he also worked a little more on his electro 181 00:10:54,320 --> 00:10:58,360 Speaker 1: convulsive therapies. But in early eighteen o three Aldini returned 182 00:10:58,360 --> 00:11:01,800 Speaker 1: to London, where his ex perments were very well attended, 183 00:11:02,240 --> 00:11:06,640 Speaker 1: and not just by scientists and surgeons and curious people, 184 00:11:06,679 --> 00:11:09,840 Speaker 1: but by gentlemen. Dukes and even the Prince of Wales 185 00:11:09,960 --> 00:11:12,720 Speaker 1: came out to see one of these shows. That's interesting. 186 00:11:12,760 --> 00:11:16,240 Speaker 1: It almost became sort of a way to make this idea, 187 00:11:16,320 --> 00:11:19,800 Speaker 1: these scientific ideas more palatable to the general public, which 188 00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:23,280 Speaker 1: is kind of They sound so the opposite of palatable 189 00:11:23,360 --> 00:11:26,280 Speaker 1: to us now. But it is interesting to think of 190 00:11:26,320 --> 00:11:30,120 Speaker 1: the highest classes coming out to see a dog decapitated 191 00:11:30,280 --> 00:11:33,800 Speaker 1: and then these pretty horrific scientific experiments take place. But 192 00:11:34,440 --> 00:11:40,200 Speaker 1: Aldini's most famous demonstration took place on January eighteen oh 193 00:11:40,200 --> 00:11:43,800 Speaker 1: three at the Royal College of Surgeons and the subject 194 00:11:43,800 --> 00:11:47,079 Speaker 1: Aldini experimented on in this case was the twenty six 195 00:11:47,160 --> 00:11:51,280 Speaker 1: year old criminal George Foster, who had just been hanged 196 00:11:51,320 --> 00:11:55,680 Speaker 1: at Newgate Prison in London for murdering his wife and child. 197 00:11:55,880 --> 00:11:59,520 Speaker 1: And according to that History magazine articles Glenna just mentioned, 198 00:11:59,520 --> 00:12:03,839 Speaker 1: Aldini and his assistance actually handed out posters beforehand that 199 00:12:03,920 --> 00:12:08,319 Speaker 1: said he was going to attempt to quote reanimated corpse 200 00:12:08,559 --> 00:12:11,240 Speaker 1: in front of a live audience. If that didn't get 201 00:12:11,280 --> 00:12:13,520 Speaker 1: people in the door, I don't know what would. Before 202 00:12:13,559 --> 00:12:16,839 Speaker 1: starting the experiment, he asked for a physician to volunteer 203 00:12:16,920 --> 00:12:19,680 Speaker 1: to come up and confirm that the body was dead. 204 00:12:19,679 --> 00:12:22,560 Speaker 1: So it almost sounds it sounds very like a magic show, 205 00:12:22,760 --> 00:12:25,800 Speaker 1: like a magic show, very performance like, and to supply 206 00:12:25,880 --> 00:12:28,559 Speaker 1: the electric current. Aldini used what was essentially a very 207 00:12:28,640 --> 00:12:32,080 Speaker 1: large battery connected to conducting rods, and when the rods 208 00:12:32,080 --> 00:12:36,120 Speaker 1: were applied to Foster's mouth and ear, Aldini said that quote, 209 00:12:36,240 --> 00:12:41,040 Speaker 1: the job began to quiver. The adjoining muscles were horribly contorted, 210 00:12:41,120 --> 00:12:45,520 Speaker 1: and the left eye actually opened, So of course the 211 00:12:45,559 --> 00:12:48,599 Speaker 1: audience was pretty freaked out at this point. They gasped, 212 00:12:48,880 --> 00:12:51,600 Speaker 1: but they hadn't even reached the best part yet or 213 00:12:51,600 --> 00:12:54,360 Speaker 1: the worst, depending on your point of view. That came 214 00:12:54,559 --> 00:12:58,040 Speaker 1: when Aldini touched the rods to the criminals rectum, which 215 00:12:58,120 --> 00:13:01,920 Speaker 1: caused the whole body to fulse. The arms began to 216 00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:05,440 Speaker 1: punch the air as if in fury. The legs kicked, 217 00:13:05,440 --> 00:13:08,800 Speaker 1: and the back arch violently, almost as if it were 218 00:13:08,840 --> 00:13:15,240 Speaker 1: taking a deep breath. It's pretty creepy sounding, so Aldini said. 219 00:13:15,400 --> 00:13:18,800 Speaker 1: The movements were quote so much increased as almost to 220 00:13:18,840 --> 00:13:22,840 Speaker 1: give an appearance of reanimation, so almost like his promise 221 00:13:22,880 --> 00:13:26,400 Speaker 1: to reanimate a corpse was coming true. This was reported 222 00:13:26,400 --> 00:13:28,520 Speaker 1: in detail in The Times a few days later, and 223 00:13:28,559 --> 00:13:31,880 Speaker 1: it really made a big impression, as you can imagine, 224 00:13:31,960 --> 00:13:35,800 Speaker 1: on both scientists and regular people. According to parents article, 225 00:13:36,320 --> 00:13:39,240 Speaker 1: a lot of people really thought that electricity might be 226 00:13:39,400 --> 00:13:43,160 Speaker 1: that long sought vital force. Then maybe this guy had 227 00:13:43,200 --> 00:13:47,320 Speaker 1: finally figured it out. Aldini received the Royal Society's Copley Medal, 228 00:13:47,360 --> 00:13:50,560 Speaker 1: its highest honor, for his work. And just an interesting 229 00:13:50,600 --> 00:13:54,280 Speaker 1: side note here, apparently the London police had sort of 230 00:13:54,280 --> 00:13:57,160 Speaker 1: a plan in this for this event, they did plan 231 00:13:57,280 --> 00:14:00,319 Speaker 1: to re execute Foster if he was in fact back 232 00:14:00,360 --> 00:14:02,920 Speaker 1: to life, just in case, just in case he wasn't 233 00:14:02,960 --> 00:14:05,280 Speaker 1: going to get out of it. But Aldini said later 234 00:14:05,320 --> 00:14:07,760 Speaker 1: in a published account that his goal wasn't actually to 235 00:14:07,840 --> 00:14:10,959 Speaker 1: reanimate the corps. He was really trying to demonstrate how 236 00:14:11,320 --> 00:14:14,840 Speaker 1: galvanism might be useful in reviving drowning victims that suffered 237 00:14:14,840 --> 00:14:18,920 Speaker 1: from asphyxiation. He considered Foster, the hanged criminal, a classic 238 00:14:18,960 --> 00:14:21,840 Speaker 1: case of asphyxiation. So this makes me wonder a little 239 00:14:21,880 --> 00:14:24,560 Speaker 1: bit about that point before about Aldini and his assistance 240 00:14:24,600 --> 00:14:26,960 Speaker 1: handing out posters saying that they were going to attempt 241 00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:29,080 Speaker 1: to reanimate a corpse, because if that wasn't his intention, 242 00:14:29,120 --> 00:14:31,280 Speaker 1: then why would they hand him out. So maybe there's 243 00:14:31,320 --> 00:14:33,880 Speaker 1: some well, you have what you say before the show 244 00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:36,880 Speaker 1: and what you say after and after the show. Aldini 245 00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:40,720 Speaker 1: also as we alluded to before explored other medical applications 246 00:14:40,720 --> 00:14:45,840 Speaker 1: for galvinism, including treating mental disorders. One apparently successful test case, 247 00:14:45,880 --> 00:14:49,160 Speaker 1: according to that Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences article that 248 00:14:49,200 --> 00:14:52,360 Speaker 1: we mentioned, involved a twenty seven year old farmer named 249 00:14:52,440 --> 00:14:57,200 Speaker 1: Luigi Lonzarini who was suffering from melancholy madness, which was 250 00:14:57,240 --> 00:15:01,400 Speaker 1: basically major depression. So to treat him, Aldini delivered shocks 251 00:15:01,400 --> 00:15:05,000 Speaker 1: from a voltaic pile to Lazzarini's shaved head. He started 252 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:07,800 Speaker 1: out with week a week voltaic pile and made it 253 00:15:07,880 --> 00:15:11,320 Speaker 1: increasingly stronger as the treatments progressed. And just as an aside, 254 00:15:11,320 --> 00:15:13,480 Speaker 1: he actually tried this out on himself first before we 255 00:15:13,560 --> 00:15:17,360 Speaker 1: tried it on his patient, so well, yeah. According to 256 00:15:17,400 --> 00:15:21,480 Speaker 1: Aldini's account of this experiment, Lazzarini's mood improved progressively until 257 00:15:21,520 --> 00:15:26,560 Speaker 1: he was supposedly cured after several weeks. Saldini's treatment of 258 00:15:26,800 --> 00:15:32,080 Speaker 1: Lazzarini inspired the electroc convulsive therapies that are still used today, 259 00:15:32,120 --> 00:15:36,760 Speaker 1: and now he's considered the father of electric shock therapy. 260 00:15:36,800 --> 00:15:41,040 Speaker 1: Although he was never able to restart a heart himself, 261 00:15:41,080 --> 00:15:43,640 Speaker 1: his work also seems to have had some kind of 262 00:15:43,640 --> 00:15:48,000 Speaker 1: direct inspiration for cardiac electrical stimulation. I mean, that was 263 00:15:48,040 --> 00:15:50,720 Speaker 1: sort of the first thing I thought of when I 264 00:15:50,760 --> 00:15:54,000 Speaker 1: was reading about these experiments with the dead criminals and 265 00:15:54,040 --> 00:15:57,520 Speaker 1: they're twitching and moving and um, the guy's back arching. 266 00:15:57,680 --> 00:16:01,400 Speaker 1: I mean, it seemed not too too far removed from 267 00:16:01,440 --> 00:16:04,200 Speaker 1: given a shock to a heart that's just stopped and 268 00:16:04,240 --> 00:16:06,920 Speaker 1: the person it's not completely out yet. Yeah, he was 269 00:16:06,960 --> 00:16:10,040 Speaker 1: never able to restart one, maybe because of the distance 270 00:16:10,120 --> 00:16:12,400 Speaker 1: or the amount of time that had lapsed between the 271 00:16:12,440 --> 00:16:14,680 Speaker 1: time that the criminal was executed in the time that 272 00:16:14,720 --> 00:16:16,600 Speaker 1: he was doing And if you're missing ahead, it's not 273 00:16:16,640 --> 00:16:19,320 Speaker 1: going to help ch That's very true, but it was 274 00:16:19,320 --> 00:16:22,480 Speaker 1: always a big disappointment of his During the latter part 275 00:16:22,520 --> 00:16:25,160 Speaker 1: of his career, though, Aldini really focused a lot less 276 00:16:25,200 --> 00:16:29,000 Speaker 1: on biology. He for example, tried to improve the construction 277 00:16:29,120 --> 00:16:32,480 Speaker 1: and illumination of lighthouses. He also explored the use of 278 00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:38,120 Speaker 1: asbestos fibers to improve firefighting. He developed new hydraulic lever systems, 279 00:16:38,240 --> 00:16:41,080 Speaker 1: and he invented new ways to light streets and buildings, 280 00:16:41,120 --> 00:16:44,040 Speaker 1: including lascalam Malan's opera house. And I have to wonder 281 00:16:44,040 --> 00:16:47,240 Speaker 1: if any inspiration from that came from his own experience, 282 00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:51,440 Speaker 1: essentially as a theatrical performer in the science realm. I 283 00:16:51,480 --> 00:16:53,920 Speaker 1: didn't think that that's a good point. So Aldini was 284 00:16:54,080 --> 00:16:57,280 Speaker 1: made a Night of the Napoleonic Order of the Iron 285 00:16:57,480 --> 00:17:01,040 Speaker 1: Crown for his scientific contributions, and in eighteen o seven 286 00:17:01,080 --> 00:17:04,600 Speaker 1: he became a counselor of the State of Milan. And 287 00:17:04,640 --> 00:17:09,159 Speaker 1: he died January eighteen thirty four, the age of seventy two, 288 00:17:09,200 --> 00:17:12,679 Speaker 1: and left behind money to found a school of physics 289 00:17:12,760 --> 00:17:16,960 Speaker 1: in chemistry for the artisans of Bologna. I think that's interesting. 290 00:17:17,119 --> 00:17:21,520 Speaker 1: It is physics and chemistry, biology not so much. Well, 291 00:17:21,600 --> 00:17:24,480 Speaker 1: physics was his major, I guess when he studied, so 292 00:17:24,960 --> 00:17:28,199 Speaker 1: maybe makes sense along those lines. But besides leading to 293 00:17:28,200 --> 00:17:31,800 Speaker 1: a couple of medical innovations, Aldini's experiments with Galvinism had 294 00:17:31,880 --> 00:17:35,479 Speaker 1: another effect. They started a kind of electro quackery. At 295 00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:40,040 Speaker 1: the time. Suddenly everybody wanted to reanimate the dead. And 296 00:17:40,119 --> 00:17:43,160 Speaker 1: that's probably why when you talk about inspirations for Frankenstein 297 00:17:43,320 --> 00:17:46,040 Speaker 1: a lot of names get thrown around. One, for example, 298 00:17:46,119 --> 00:17:49,720 Speaker 1: is Carl August Weinhold, and what he's known for is 299 00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:52,879 Speaker 1: these horrifying experiments in which he scooped out a cat's 300 00:17:52,960 --> 00:17:56,240 Speaker 1: brains and spinal cord and filled the cavities with silver 301 00:17:56,320 --> 00:17:59,480 Speaker 1: and zinc. He said that the cats would regain a 302 00:17:59,560 --> 00:18:02,280 Speaker 1: pulse become animated again for a short time. I think 303 00:18:02,320 --> 00:18:04,879 Speaker 1: his words were something like they bounded around for several 304 00:18:04,920 --> 00:18:08,520 Speaker 1: minutes or something like that. Another person who's often associated 305 00:18:08,520 --> 00:18:11,760 Speaker 1: with the Frankenstein myth is Andrew Ura, who was another 306 00:18:11,960 --> 00:18:15,200 Speaker 1: scientist who did experiments with the corpse of a hanged criminal. 307 00:18:15,600 --> 00:18:19,040 Speaker 1: But these occurred closer to the time that Shelley actually 308 00:18:19,040 --> 00:18:22,760 Speaker 1: published her novel, and a link between Shelley's husband, Percy 309 00:18:22,800 --> 00:18:26,040 Speaker 1: Bist Shelley, and Aldini's famous uncle suggests she may have 310 00:18:26,080 --> 00:18:30,080 Speaker 1: actually known of Aldini's experiments. Apparently, Percy Bis Shelley, when 311 00:18:30,080 --> 00:18:32,200 Speaker 1: he was a schoolboy, had been mentored by a retired 312 00:18:32,200 --> 00:18:35,919 Speaker 1: Scottish scientist named John Lynde. Lynde had a passionate interest 313 00:18:35,960 --> 00:18:39,080 Speaker 1: in Galvani's work, and in the seventeen nineties or so, 314 00:18:39,160 --> 00:18:42,640 Speaker 1: became the first British scientists to repeat the frog experiments, 315 00:18:42,840 --> 00:18:45,560 Speaker 1: So that's one link. Also, according to an article by 316 00:18:45,640 --> 00:18:49,920 Speaker 1: Charles J. Thompson in the Journal of Chemical Education, Scientists 317 00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:53,359 Speaker 1: or Humphrey Davy is the one who invited Aldini to 318 00:18:53,400 --> 00:18:56,960 Speaker 1: do his famous eighteen o three presentation. So Percy would 319 00:18:56,960 --> 00:18:59,480 Speaker 1: have only been eleven at that time and Mary Walstoncraft 320 00:18:59,480 --> 00:19:02,960 Speaker 1: would have only been six. But years later Davy did 321 00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:05,959 Speaker 1: become part of their literary and social circle, so they 322 00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:08,560 Speaker 1: may have heard of Aldini's experiments that way. It's not 323 00:19:08,680 --> 00:19:12,800 Speaker 1: definitive proof, of course, but it's something to ponder anyway. Well, 324 00:19:12,840 --> 00:19:15,720 Speaker 1: and I have to imagine that after a spectacle like 325 00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:18,320 Speaker 1: you would see at one of Aldini's shows, people would 326 00:19:18,359 --> 00:19:21,199 Speaker 1: talk about that for a long time. It wouldn't just 327 00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:23,680 Speaker 1: be news that was in and out of the headlines. 328 00:19:23,760 --> 00:19:26,199 Speaker 1: It seems like something that would come up, maybe not 329 00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:29,680 Speaker 1: around the dinner table, but just when you're having a chat, 330 00:19:29,800 --> 00:19:32,760 Speaker 1: especially with with somebody who would have known Albini. Well, 331 00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:35,240 Speaker 1: it was something that Percy Shelley was really interested in 332 00:19:35,240 --> 00:19:37,840 Speaker 1: throughout his lifetime too. I guess that Lynt had had 333 00:19:37,880 --> 00:19:40,680 Speaker 1: a pretty big influence on him. And I've even read 334 00:19:40,720 --> 00:19:43,960 Speaker 1: stories that say that when their family cat died, he 335 00:19:44,040 --> 00:19:47,719 Speaker 1: tried to reanimate it with electric jewelts. He wasn't successful, 336 00:19:47,800 --> 00:19:51,280 Speaker 1: of course, but there you have it. On the surface. 337 00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:56,200 Speaker 1: I have to say, this story is really endowing something 338 00:19:56,240 --> 00:19:58,680 Speaker 1: with life. Really seems like it should be a positive thing, 339 00:19:58,720 --> 00:20:03,440 Speaker 1: but it's so cre be, it's so scary. I wonder too, 340 00:20:03,480 --> 00:20:06,640 Speaker 1: I mean this, the details are horrifying on their own, 341 00:20:06,640 --> 00:20:09,439 Speaker 1: but I wonder how much of our repulsion from that 342 00:20:09,560 --> 00:20:12,919 Speaker 1: does come from Frankenstein. You know, we do know the 343 00:20:13,080 --> 00:20:16,960 Speaker 1: terrible things that can happen, and we have Mary Shelley's 344 00:20:17,080 --> 00:20:21,040 Speaker 1: depiction of reanimating life, which is terrible, you know, getting 345 00:20:21,040 --> 00:20:24,600 Speaker 1: old parts from dead people and stitching them together. Nothing 346 00:20:24,680 --> 00:20:27,400 Speaker 1: is appealing about it, and it's not at all like 347 00:20:27,400 --> 00:20:30,160 Speaker 1: like what you say. It does seem like reanimating life 348 00:20:30,200 --> 00:20:33,680 Speaker 1: should be something positive. Instead it's it's repulsive. Yeah, well, 349 00:20:33,680 --> 00:20:36,400 Speaker 1: I think even more than just the practice of doing it, 350 00:20:36,400 --> 00:20:39,439 Speaker 1: it's like that moral question out there of should we 351 00:20:39,560 --> 00:20:43,760 Speaker 1: be doing this that makes it really sinister. So so, yeah, 352 00:20:43,960 --> 00:20:47,240 Speaker 1: make yourself a cup of tea and break out Mary 353 00:20:47,359 --> 00:20:51,240 Speaker 1: Shelley's Frankenstein and maybe think these things over, especially if 354 00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:54,359 Speaker 1: it's a dark and stormy night. And if you finish 355 00:20:54,440 --> 00:20:56,800 Speaker 1: that great read and you have some more ideas for 356 00:20:57,080 --> 00:21:01,919 Speaker 1: spooky or scientific or both podcasts for us, please write us. 357 00:21:01,960 --> 00:21:04,080 Speaker 1: We're a history podcast at how stuff works dot com. 358 00:21:04,119 --> 00:21:06,520 Speaker 1: We love to do them, and even though October is 359 00:21:06,560 --> 00:21:09,000 Speaker 1: almost over. We will always have a place in our 360 00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:14,760 Speaker 1: hearts for scary podcast podcast. 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