Galvanism

Im Jahre 1869 notiert der Journalist Julius Eckardt: " Man kann das russische Reich vom Peipus-See bis zum Ochozkischen Meerbusen, vom Tiflis bis an die eisigen Gefilde Achangels durchstreifen, in jeder Stadt von einiger Bedeutung wird man wenigstens einen deutschen Arzt und einen deutschen Apotheker finden, […] "

Developing galvanic experiments can be understood as a complex phenomeno-technology, in which the instruments reading the material phenomena became the apparatus productive of the phenomena investigated, the phenomena investigated, and a concrete means of conceptualizing that phenomena. Through the galvanic experiments, the frog leg became a technology for both reading and writing material inscriptions, as well as the material being investigated. Ritter’s studies of this developing phenomeno-technology led to the exploration of the relationships between organic, chemical and electrical phenomena. He also engaged in a series of self-experiments in which the frog apparatus was replaced by his own sense organs as instruments for reading galvanic action, extending instrumentality into the experimental subject as well as the object studied. Ritter accompanied his accounts of galvanic experiments with figures, which he called experiments as well as formulae. Like his experiments they are demonstrative in the sense of both displaying and figuring out nature’s laws. Novalis depicted Ritter’s figures an “instrumental language” that was a means of theorizing phenomena as well as experiencing a theory. But Ritter did not claim the script of nature thus articulated unveiled the truth of nature. They are expressive of the figurative form knowledge of nature necessarily takes.

In the early stages of his scientific career, Alexander von Humboldt took an interest in experiments in galvanism. He publicised the results in a two-volume work under the title Versuche über die gereizte Muskel- und Nervenfaser (Experiments on the Stimulated Muscle and Nerve Fibre) in 1797 and 1798. In this treatise, he presented himself as competent experimenter and member of the scientific community, but also demonstrated that he was capable of researching new and complex phenomena. These volumes also provide insight into his early attempts to facilitate the readers’ access to the extensive information he had compiled.

This article analyses some aspects of Humboldt’s efforts to arrange his vast numbers of observations and theories, for example by means of appendices and narrative style, which he used not only to present the resulting big data collected during his research, but also to make it possible for the reader to organise and utilise this data.