Alexander von Humboldt

Humboldt extended Galvani's experiments on animal electricity, working with frogs and looking for general facts rather than frog-specific ones¹². Later authors listed Humboldt among the early workers in the field, and one of them linked the work to an overestimate of galvanism³⁴. Humboldt's travel writing also shaped Darwin and informed later accounts of curare⁵⁶.

Born: 14 September 1769
Died: 6 May 1859
In the library: 0 works, named in 12 passages elsewhere
Facts from: Wikidata · Wikipedia

Animal electricity after Galvani

Verworn names Humboldt, with Ritter and Pfaff, among those who carried on the study of animal electricity before du Bois-Reymond gave it exact methods⁴. Verworn also says that the work of Ritter and partly of Humboldt, which extended Galvani's experiments, fed the popular idea that the galvanic current causes all vital phenomena³. Du Bois-Reymond reports that the Humboldt copy of Matteucci's book reached Johannes Müller and then du Bois-Reymond in 1841, which began the latter's work on animal electricity¹.

A dispute over the frog current

Du Bois-Reymond rejects Matteucci's claim that Galvani and Humboldt held the frog current to belong only to the frog. In du Bois-Reymond's reading, almost every line of their writings shows that their frog experiments aimed at general facts². Du Bois-Reymond adds that Nobili, who gave the current a thermo-electric origin, did not treat it as confined to one species either². The disagreement is over how to read earlier authors, not over a new measurement.

Distribution, curare and guano

Rádl says Humboldt tried to find the causes of the geographical distribution of plants and animals, an effort he considers forgotten⁵. Rádl also reports that Darwin counted Humboldt among the two men who most influenced his student years and followed this line of work⁶. Bernard cites Humboldt's accounts of curare, which showed only that the poison was hard to prepare and killed fast⁷. Lotka credits Humboldt, with Liebig, with renewing European attention to guano⁸.

SourcesEach quotation was checked word for word against the passage it opens.

Signor Matteucci sent a copy of his work to Baron Humboldt. Baron Humboldt gave it Professor John Miiller, the celebrated physiologist of Berlin, who gave it to me in the spring of 1841Du Bois-Reymond, E. (ed. H. Bence Jones), 1852 · On Animal Electricity: Being an Abstract of the Discoveries of Emil du… · open at passage 20
As regards Galvan. ami Humboldt, almost every line of their writings is sufficient to prove that throughout their experiments on frogs they tried to detect general factsDu Bois-Reymond, E. (ed. H. Bence Jones), 1852 · On Animal Electricity: Being an Abstract of the Discoveries of Emil du… · open at passage 26
researches of Ritter (1776-1810) and partly also those of Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) and others, who extended Galvani's experiments, the idea arose and later became very popularVerworn, M., 1899 · General Physiology: An Outline of the Science of Life · open at passage 67
Pfaff, Humboldt, Ritter, Nobili, Matteucci and others laboured in the further development of the science of animal electricityVerworn, M., 1899 · General Physiology: An Outline of the Science of Life · open at passage 688
Another of Humboldt's attempts seems to have been completely forgotten, namely, his attempt to discover the causes of the present geographical distribution of plants and animals.Rádl, E., 1930 · The History of Biological Theories · open at passage 493
Darwin has told us that the two men whose work greatly influenced him during his student days were Herschel and Humboldt.Rádl, E., 1930 · The History of Biological Theories · open at passage 43
From old observations and from the interesting accounts of Alex, von Humboldt and of Roulin and Boussingault, we knew only that the preparation of this substance was complex and difficultBernard, C., 1957 · An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine · open at passage 425
attention was again drawn to it two hundred years later by von Humboldt and by Justus LiebigLotka, A. J., 1925 · Elements of Physical Biology · open at passage 541