ALDINI (Jean) Theoretical and experimental essay... Lot 4

ALDINI (Jean) Theoretical and experimental essay on Galvanism, with a series of experiments Paris, from the printing house of Fournier fils, 1804; in-4, half brown basane, smooth spine decorated with gilded motifs, black title page, [contemporary binding], spines cracked, old restorations. First edition of the French translation in quarto format. Illustrated with 10 copper-engraved folding plates. Nephew of Luigi Galvani, whose treatise on muscular electricity he edited in 1791, the Bolognese Giovanni Aldini (1762-1834) devoted himself essentially to galvanism (contraction of a muscle stimulated by electrical energy) and its medical applications. "His best known work, "Essai théorique" (1804) appeared in two volumes and also, in the same year, as a single quarto volume, dedicated to Napoleon. While Galvani remained silent during the growing controversy over the true nature of his animal electricity, the effervescent Aldini became his uncle's champion, so much so that Volta addressed his arguments to Aldini instead of Galvani. Some of his more dramatic experiments involved motion in the anatomical members of a just-executed murderer and induced muscular contraction in dissected parts of sheep, oxen, and chickens" (Dibner, in Dictionary of Scientific Biography, I, 108). Smudging at head, some foxing; last plate chipped. Handwritten note on first white endpaper: "Gift of M. Carlier". Wellcome, II, 27.