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).
Freeman’s, August 20. President Washington Reaffirms the US Treaty of Friendship and Peace with Morocco, the Longest Unbroken Treaty in US History. $50,000 – 80,000.
Freeman’s, August 20. Weeks After Victory at Yorktown, Benjamin Franklin Promises Repayment of a French Loan that Funded the American Revolution. $200,000 – 300,000.
Freeman’s, August 20. Rare First Edition of the Foundational Text of the Mormon Church. $100,000 – 150,000.
Freeman’s, August 20. President Washington Sends the First Major Law Passed by Congress, the Tariff Act of 1789. $100,000 – 150,000.
Freeman’s, August 20. A Scarce Example of Audubon's Depiction of a Brown Pelican, Plate CCLI from his Birds of America. $30,000 – 50,000.
Freeman’s, August 20. The Official and First Obtainable Broadside Printing of the Lincoln's Final Emancipation Proclamation. $30,000 – 50,000.
