Item 37 is the pioneering work in electro-biology, presuming there is such a term. It is Luigi Galvani's De viribus electricitatis in motu musculari commentaries. This article appeared in an Italian scientific journal in 1791. Galvani was the first to discover a phenomenon every biology student, to his or her horror, has had to reproduce ever since. This is the one where you run an electronic current through the legs of a dead frog and it starts jumping. Galvani had discovered that electrical currents made the muscles of animals contract and produce motion. £22,500 (US $36,185).

 

A little bit of knowledge can be dangerous. Item 24 demonstrates the application of electricity to humans. We are not referring to executions here, just an attempt to explore in more detail the effect of electricity on human muscles, particularly those of the face. Guillaume Duchenne applied electrodes to the face of an elderly man, creating various facial expressions, from happy to scary. His book, Mecanisme de la Physionomie Humaine… provides a photographic as well as textual account of his experiments. Duchenne is considered one of the pioneers in the science of neurology. £12,500 ($20,103).

 

Peter Harrington Antiquarian Bookseller may be reached at +44 (0)20 7591 0220 or mail@peterharringtonbooks.co.uk.  Their website is www.peterharringtonbooks.com.