Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was a Prussian eclectic who made some significant contributions to natural history. Humboldt was born in Berlin to an affluent military family. As a child, he spent most of his spare time collecting and categorising different animal and plant species. By his early 20s, Humboldt had completed courses in finance, business, Spanish, anatomy and geology. In 1792 he set up a residence and laboratory in Vienna, where he carried out thousands of experiments using electricity and drawing on earlier research by Luigi Galvani and Franz Karl Achard. Humboldt was particularly interested in the relationship between electricity and living tissue. Most of his experiments involved applying mild charges to live animals of different species, from worms and other invertebrates to amphibians, fish and large mammals. Humboldt once attempted to revive a dead finch by inserting a silver electrode into its rectum and another into its beak, then sending through a current:

“To my amazement, at the moment of contact the bird opened its eyes and raised itself on its feet by flapping its wings. It breathed anew for seven or eight minutes and then expired quietly.”

Humboldt was not averse to experimenting on himself. On one occasion he electrified his own skin – to see if frogs placed on his back would hop. During another test Humboldt replicated the finch experiment by placing a zinc-tipped electrode into his mouth and a silver electrode “approximately four inches” into his rectum. The outcome of this was not pleasant:

“The introduction of a charge into the armatures produced nauseating cramps and discomforting stomach contractions, then abdominal pain of a severe magnitude… followed by involuntary evacuation of the bladder… What struck me more… is that by inserting the silver more deeply into the rectum, a bright light appears before both eyes.”

Humboldt survived these torturous self-experiments to fulfil his dreams of becoming a scientific explorer. In 1799 he joined a Spanish expedition to Cuba and South America. During this trip, Humboldt researched everything from volcanoes to bird droppings. While travelling on the Orinoco River, Humboldt was delighted to capture some electric eels which he used to deliberately administer shocks to himself and an assistant. Fortunately for the eel, Humboldt’s rectum played no part in this self-experiment.

Source: Alexander von Humboldt, Versuche über die gereizte Muskel und Nervenfaser nebst Vermutungen über den chemischen Prozess des Lebens in der Tier und Pflanzenweldt, Berlin, 1797. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2016. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.