that branch of physical science which treats of the chemical agencies of electricity, and of its influence upon the animal frame. The chemical effects of electrical action had been previously studied by Cavendish as a branch of ordinary electricity; and it was not till the year 1790, when Galvani made the interesting discovery that muscular contractions were excited in dead frogs by the contact of metals, that the new science of Galvanism was established. The boundaries of Galvanism were widely extended by the invention of the pile in 1800, by M. Volta of Corna, in consequence of which the name of Voltaic Electricity has been very generally substituted instead of Galvanism. The subject of Galvanism, including Animal Electricity, is treated of under VOLTAIC ELECTRICITY.