In January 1803 the anatomist and electrical showman Giovanni Aldini shocked London with a ghoulish experiment.
WSJ: Book Review: The Lady and Her Monsters
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She recorded her debt to the daring speculations of Erasmus Darwin, Charles's grandfather, about the spontaneous creation of life, and to the electrical researches of Aldini's uncle Luigi Galvani.
WSJ: Book Review: The Lady and Her Monsters
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For a moment it seemed that breath was beginning to rise and fall in its chest: Aldini cut through the rib cage with a scalpel to expose the heart and applied the electrodes directly to that organ, but the body failed to resuscitate.