Bresadola,M., Piccolino M. Shocking frogs Galvani, Volta, and the electric origins of neuroscience

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. — 399 p.Foreword
Authors' preface to the Italian edition
Authors' preface to the English editionGalvani, Volta and the forgotten electrophysiology
"Truth and usefulness": medicine and natural philosophy in the eighteenth century
Galvani's education in Bologna: the University, the Institute of Sciences, and the hospitals
Galvani's professional career
Galvani's early anatomo-physiological investigation
Animal spirits, vital forces, and electricity: nervous conduction and muscular motion in the eighteenth century
The debate on Hallerian irritability
The study of electricity in the eighteenth century
"Artificial" electricity, "natural" electricity and their role in the human body
Electric fish
Artificial electricity, the spark, and the nervous fluid: Galvani's early research on muscular motion
The beginning of electrophysiological experimentation
A "problematic" turn: the observation of contractions at a distance
Galvani's Saggio sulla forza nervea of 1782
A "fortunate" discovery: Galvani's theory of animal electricity
The study of "airs" in relation to the living organism
The effects of atmospheric electricity on muscular motion and the discovery of metal arcs
The model of the muscle as an animal Leyden jar
The final elaboration of the theory of animal electricity
The controversy between Galvani and Volta over animal electricity: the first stage
Galvani's work in the scientific culture of the late eighteenth century
Volta's early research on animal electricity: quantification, muscular physiology, and the "special theory of contact electricity"
Galvani's Trattato dell'arco conduttore: the criticism against Volta and the notion of a circuit of animal electricity
The controversy between Galvani and Volta over animal electricity: the second stage
Volta's "general theory of contact electricity"
Galvani's reply to Volta's criticisms and the1797 Memorie sulla elettricita animale
Galvani's research on electric fish and the various forms of electricity
The conclusion of the Galvani-Volta controversy
The electrophysiological work of Alessandro Volta
Volta and life sciences
Volta's research on sensations
Sensation and muscular motion in Volta's "chain" experiments
Volta's research on electric fishes and the invention of the electric battery
From Galvani to Hodgkin and beyond: the central problem of electrophysiology in the last two centuries
Measuring animal electricity
Nervous conduction: propagated electric signal and the firing of a train of gun-powder
The involvement of animal electricity in nerve conduction demonstrated
Neuromuscular excitability: the modern explanation
Cell membrane and ions: a machine generating electric potentials
The electric mechanism of nerve conduction and muscle excitation
Concluding remarks