ABSTRACT
When Galvani discovered “animal electricity” in muscle and nerve, Volta doubted its authenticity and criticized Galvani on the basis that the electricity was external to muscle or nerve tissue and subsequently invented the voltaic pile battery in an attempt to prove he was right. Actually, both Galvani and Volta were correct, but Volta could not comprehend that electricity was also present in nerve and muscle, albeit of a much different nature than that flowing through a metal conductor. As a result, electricity developed into a central and critical investigation of physics and bioelectricity existed for many years as a backwater or underground stream. It seemed a worthwhile challenge to combine the electricity of physics with the electricity of biology and apply the result to medicine.
