Science: Luigi Galvani & "animal electricity"

In the late 1786, Italian surgeon Luigi Galvani was experimenting with electricity and dead frogs. By applying sparks of static electricity to the legs of dead frogs, he discovered he could make frog legs twitch. He would also hang dead frogs from brass hooks during thunderstorms (so the metal would conduct electricity), which would also result in twitching. He called this "animal electricity," but it was soon renamed "galvinism."

In the early 1800s, Galvani's nephew toured Europe, demonstrating galvinism on ox heads and even on recently executed criminals. In one case, a London paper reported that the man's the whole body quivered, the right arm raised, and one eye opened, and that it looked as though the whole body were coming back to life. (Source: Frankenstein, a Cultural History)

The image above is a political cartoon from the United States in 1836. So, galvinism was known in the U.S. as well. ("In this 1836 American political cartoon, Jacksonian newspaper editor Francis Preston Blair rises from the grave after receiving a jolt from a galvanic battery." (Source: U.S. National Library of Medicine)