According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, galvanism is a term used to refer to the electric current which is produced as a result of chemical action. Galvanism is a phenomenon that occurs where there is connection between current or a conductor of electricity with another substance. As the interaction between a conducting medium with a source capable of producing current electricity is possible, we also see that the reaction of living thing based on the contact with an external source generates movement in an animal especially in a state of death. For instance according to the theory propounded by “Galvani” who was the first person to discover this phenomenon when he experimented on a dead frog, he discovered a movement in the body of the dead frog when there was a lightning outside the laboratory (Christian et al., 2009).
Galvanism is however linked with electricity and magnetism in that there are fields that surrounds these phenomenon which serves as a medium through which they generates the needed reaction (Houston, 1905). Fishes in the ocean are able to thrive because all that is needed is supplied them through the environment created for them in water. Oxygen and other needed gases are circulated because of the conducive environment in water. In the same way, the phenomenon of galvanism requires a certain field that supports the movement which is made possible via chemical action. We often hear of galvanized iron used in the roofing of houses. This is to achieve the possibility of protecting the surface of the iron due to contact with moisture and other atmospheric substances that are corrosive in nature (Benjamin, 1988). There can only be one thing responsible for this process of galvanism which is the chemical reaction that is taking place from time to time between substances either through direct or induced (indirect) contact.
The good example of where the term “galvanism” is used in literature is in the book titled “Frankentein”, the 1818 edition by Mary Shelley. In the book though fictitious, the process of galvanism was used by Victor to reanimate a female version of the monster, the process which he did not complete (Frankeistein; pp. 202, see chap. 20). We can see the relationship between the work of Victor in creating a monster to galvanism in this statement, “I sat one evening in my laboratory; the sun had set, and the moon was just rising from the sea; I had not sufficient light from my employment.” The work of Victor depended on the light from outside to the creation of the monster inside the laboratory. This supports the definition that, “galvanism is a reaction that takes place when there is a spark of current in contact with such substances though might not be direct contact according Galvani in the eighteenth century”
REFERENCES
Cajavilca, Christian, Joseph Varon, and George L. Sternbach. “Luigi Galvani and the Foundations of Electrophysiology.” Resuscitation, vol. 80, no. 2, 2009., pp. 159-162doi:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2008.09.020.
Edwin James Houston, “Electricity in Everyday Life”, Chapter XXII. P. F. Collier & Son, 1905.
“Galvanism.” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 13 May 2018.
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1797-1851. Frankenstein: the 1818 Text. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Print.
