Carlo Matteucci

Carlo Matteucci (1811 to 1868) was an Italian physicist and neurophysiologist who pioneered the study of bioelectricity. Born at Forli in Romagna to a physician father, he studied mathematics at the University of Bologna, took his doctorate in 1829 and then studied at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, where Francois Arago was his teacher. After posts at Ravenna he became professor of physics at the University of Pisa in 1840 on Arago's recommendation. Using Leopoldo Nobili's sensitive galvanometer he showed that injured excitable tissue generates a direct electric current and that such currents add up when elements are placed in series, and he built a rheoscopic frog from a cut nerve and its attached muscle as a detector of weak electricity. His work directly influenced Emil du Bois-Reymond, and the Royal Society awarded him the Copley Medal in 1844. From 1847 he took part in politics, becoming a senator in 1860, inspector-general of the Italian telegraph lines and later Minister of Education.