Duo of science and mysticism: what experiments served as the foundation for the novel "Frankenstein, or Modern Prometheus" (7 photos)
It is generally accepted that science and magic are clearly distinguished. AND no vinaigrette from meatballs and flies. But, despite the contradictions, sometimes they can really complement each other. 
This happened in the case of Mary Shelley's famous novel, become a classic of the horror genre. It's about the book "Frankenstein, or Modern Prometheus. 
Checking the effect of galvanism Giovanni Aldini
In early January 1803, an execution took place in London: hanged a man named George Foster, who was charged with murder of his own family - wife and child. It's scary, but it happens. at all times. The corpse was taken to the academy of surgeons to be used for the benefit of science.
It must be said that more than 20 years before the described events, the Italian Luigi Galvani proved the existence of a connection between electricity and nerve impulses in the human body. AND nephew Giovanni Aldini, who continued the work of the doctor, clearly demonstrated this connection with the example of Foster's body. Action even covered in The Times:
First of all, an electric current was let through the face the deceased: his jaw began to tremble, and his face turned into a terrible grimace due to contraction of adjacent muscles, one eye arbitrarily opened. Then his legs began to move, and his right hand rose and clenched her fist. 
Giovanni Aldini
At that point in time, an unprepared viewer himself could forefathers to depart at the sight of such a picture. After all, it looked like the dead man is doing his best to rise.
But Giovanni Aldini took part in the experiment not only in the interests of science. He also wanted to defend the honor of his uncle, whom he fiercely criticized by other researchers. Alessandro was among the opponents Volta. Who believed that the effect of "live electricity" is due only by the presence of metal in the chain. And the biological tissues of the body here completely irrelevant. 
Mary Shelley
Many audacious minds of their time burned with the idea to understand Is electricity capable of becoming the notorious matter of life and resurrecting deceased. Among them was Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. The woman's husband is a poet Percy Bysshe Shelley was an ardent admirer of experiments with electricity and adherent of the galvanic idea.
Although many treated this idea with irony, it became food for thought and in a deeper sense. Lecturer Charles Wilkinson, who assisted Galvani, believed that electricity represents a certain energy substance that unites physical and spiritual, that is, two opposite areas. 
Boris Karloff in Frankenstein, 1931
Later this idea was supported by the surgeon John Abernathy. So the theory of vitalism appeared - the doctrine of the presence in living organisms immaterial supernatural force that controls life phenomena of the so-called "life force". 
When Shelley's novel was published, she was already widely widespread and found a response among representatives of different strata population. The book was published in 1818, and just a few months later chemist Andrew Ure from Scotland conducted a similar experiment with the corpse of another executed for the murder of a criminal - Matthew Clydesdale. 
Robert De Niro in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein 1994
And described that many participants could not stand the end of the experience and left. And one man even lost his senses - so wild and the emotions changing on the face of the dead man looked real - grimaces fear, anger, rage, impotence, pain, despair. In Yur's notes even The emphasis was mainly on the emotional component, rather than on scientific details. Therefore, belief in the existence of higher powers is possible even in the case of scientists. After all, even Niels Bohr had a poster on the wall with with the words: “A perpetual motion machine does not exist, everyone knows this. But what if?" AND there is always a tiny chance for something to exist incomprehensible. But that's just for now.
