Carlo Matteucci (20 June 1811 – 24 June 1868) was an Italian physicist and neurophysiologist who was a pioneer in the study of bioelectricity .
7-523: The Matteucci Medal is an Italian award for physicists, named after Carlo Matteucci from Forlì . It was established to award physicists for their fundamental contributions. Under an Italian Royal Decree dated July 10, 1870, the Italian Society of Sciences was authorized to receive a donation from Carlo Matteucci for the establishment of the Prize. Source: Carlo Matteucci Carlo Matteucci
14-484: A series of experiments which he pursued until his death in 1865. Using a sensitive galvanometer of Leopoldo Nobili , he was able to prove that injured excitable biological tissues generated direct electrical currents , and that they could be summed up by adding elements in series, like in Alessandro Volta ’s (1745-1827) electric pile . Thus, Mateucci was able to develop what he called a " rheoscopic frog ", by using
21-665: The Annales de chimie et de physique (1829–1858); and most of them also appeared at the time in the Italian scientific journals. They relate almost entirely to electrical phenomena, such as the magnetic rotation of light , the action of gas batteries , the effects of torsion on magnetism , the electric polarization of electrodes , etc., sufficiently complete accounts of which are given in Wiedemann 's Galvanismus . Nine memoirs, entitled Electro-Physiological Researches , were published in
28-490: The cut nerve of a frog's leg and its attached muscle as a kind of sensitive electricity detector. His work in bioelectricity influenced directly the research developed by Emil du Bois-Reymond (1818–1896), a student of the great German biologist Johannes Peter Müller (1801–1858) in Berlin, who tried the duplicate Matteucci's experiments and ended up discovering the nerve's action potential . In 1844, for these studies, Matteucci
35-577: The head of the laboratory of the Hospital of Ravenna and became a professor of physics at the local college. In 1840, by recommendation of François Arago (1786–1853), his teacher at the École Polytechnique, to the Grand-Duke of Tuscany , Matteucci accepted a post of professor of physics at the University of Pisa . Instigated by the work of Luigi Galvani (1737–1798) on bioelectricity, Matteucci began in 1830
42-615: Was awarded with the Copley medal by the Royal Society . From 1847, he took an active part in politics, and in 1860 was chosen an Italian senator , at the same time becoming inspector-general of the Italian telegraph lines. Two years later he was appointed Minister of Education. Matteucci died in the Ardenza neighbourhood of Livorno in 1868. Matteucci was the author of four scientific treatises in physics: His numerous papers were published in
49-467: Was born at Forlì , in the province of Romagna , to Vincenzo Matteucci, a physician, and Chiara Folfi. He studied mathematics at the University of Bologna from 1825 to 1828, receiving his doctorate in 1829. From 1829 to 1831, he studied at the École Polytechnique in Paris, France. Upon returning to Italy, Matteucci studied at Bologna (1832), Florence , Ravenna (1837) and Pisa . He established himself as
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