galvanism

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   electricity produced by chemical action, especially as understood in early electrical science

   Early experiments in galvanism showed that a chemical cell could produce a steady current.

2. 2
   noun

   the therapeutic or experimental application of direct electric current to the body

   Nineteenth-century physicians sometimes promoted galvanism as a treatment for paralysis.

Borrowed from French galvanisme and named after Italian physician Luigi Galvani (1737-1798), whose experiments linked electricity with muscular contraction. The suffix -ism made the surname into a name for the phenomenon and its applications.

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