,
and many other arts and wonders, all go back to that dish of frogs which
the amiable and fond Professor Galvani was preparing for his sick wife's
dinner one day, about the year 1787. It was a curious reflection, when
we were illuminating our houses to celebrate the laying of the first
Atlantic cable, that this bewildering and unique triumph of man over
nature had no more illustrious origin than the legs of an Italian frog.
We are aware that the honor _has_ been claimed for a Neapolitan mouse.
There _is_ a story in the books of a mouse in Naples that had the
impudence, in 1786, to bite the leg of a professor of medicine, and was
caught in the act by the professor himself, who punished his audacity by
dissecting him. While doing so, he observed that, when he touched a
nerve of the creature with his knife, its limbs were slightly convulsed.
The professor was struck with the circumstance, was puzzled by it,
mentioned it, and it was recorded; but as nothing further came of it, no
connection can be established between that mouse and the splendors of
silver-plated ware and the wonders of the telegraph. The claims of
Professor Galvani's frog rest upon a sure foundation of fact. Signora
Galvani--so runs one version of the story--lay sick upon a couch in a
room in which there was that chaos of domestic utensils and
philosophical apparatus that may still be observed sometimes in the
abodes of men addicted to science. The Professor himself had prepared
the frogs for the stew-pan, and left them upon a table near the
conductor of an electrical machine. A student, while experimenting with
the machine, chanced to touch with a steel instrument one of the frogs
at the intersection of the legs. The sick lady observed that, as often
as he did so, the legs were convulsed, or, as we now say, were
_galvanized_. Upon her husband's return to the room, she mentioned this
strange thing to him, and he immediately repeated the experiment.

From 1760 to 1790, as the reader is probably aware, all the scientific
world was on the _qui vive_ with regard to electricity. The most
brilliant reputations of that century had been won by electric
discoveries. Franklin was still alive, to reward with his benignant
approval those who should contribute anything valuable after his own
immense additions to man's knowledge of this alluring and baffling
element. It was, therefore, as much the spirit of the time as the genius
of the man, that made Galvani seize this