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Carpal Tunnel
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-------- Date: Thu Jun 24 00:01:39 EDT 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--galvanize galvanize (GAL-vuh-nyze) verb tr. 1. To stimulate or shock with an electric current.
2. To arouse to awareness or action; spur.
3. To coat (iron or steel) with rust-resistant zinc.
[After Luigi Galvani (1737-1798), Italian physiologist and physician who asserted that animal tissues generate electricity. Although he was proved wrong, his experiments stimulated research on electricity.]
As I remember reading about it, Galvani had dissected out frog gastrocnemius muscles, and hung them on a metal frame so that both ends were touching the metal. The muscles contracted. He had no instrument capable of detecting the very tiny current produced by electrolysis when two different metals are connected by a solution containing ions. Here is encyclopedia article: Galvani, Luigi (l´j gälvä´n) (KEY) , 1737–98, Italian physician. He was professor of anatomy from 1775 at the Univ. of Bologna and was noted as a surgeon and for research in comparative anatomy. During experiments on muscle and nerve preparations of frogs, he noticed the contraction of a frog’s leg touched with charged metal. He devised an arc of two metals with which contractions could be induced and in 1791 published his results, attributing the source of electricity to the animal tissue. The explanation was disputed by Volta, who correctly believed that the electricity originated in the metallic arc. The controversy focused attention on electricity in animals and stimulated research in electrotherapy and on electric currents. Many terms in electricity are derived from Galvani’s name.
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Carpal Tunnel
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I just remembered a phenomenon that many other members may have experienced. Accidentally touching a fork or other metal to an amalgam tooth filling can be quite unpleasant. Again, two dissimilar metals produce a tiny electric current, which the nerve of the tooth experiences as pain.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Apparently accounts of Galvani's experiments were one of the inspirations for Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus".
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