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Which scientists supported Luigi Galvani during the animal-electricity controversy?
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Luigi Galvani
Luigi Galvani in an illustration from Le Journal de la Jeunesse, Paris, 1880.
During the scientific controversy regarding the nature of electricity in living tissue, Luigi Galvaniās positionāwhich argued that animal tissue contained an innate "animal electricity"āwas supported by the German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt.1
While Galvaniās findings were initially accepted by many of his colleagues, they were famously challenged by Alessandro Volta, who contended that the electricity was generated by the contact of dissimilar metals rather than the animal tissue itself. This disagreement divided the scientific community into two camps, with Volta receiving support from Coulomb and other French physicists.21