title: Galvanic cultures: electricity and life in the early nineteenth century.
abstract: Electricity has long proved to be a powerful tool for investigating the properties of life. Towards the beginning of the nineteenth century new discoveries and inventions in electricity stimulated a new popular fascination with such questions. Electricity seemed a good way of understanding the machinery of life. It was the key to unlocking the secrets of vitality. Looking at these early nineteenth-century debates and discussions provides a good way of focusing on the cultural connections and ramifications of science. As electricity provided tools for understanding life, it provided tools for understanding culture also.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Anthropology, Queen's University, Belfast.
authors.forename: I R
authors.initials: IR
authors.lastname: Morus
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004560:Electricity / Q000266:history*; D004563:Electrochemistry / Q000266:history; D004594:Electrophysiology / Q000266:history*; D005060:Europe; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D012070:Religion and Science; D012586:Science / Q000266:history