FRANKENSTEIN AND
SCIENCE FIGURES
“WHO WERE THESE PEOPLE ANYHOW?”
SCIENCE AND FRANKENSTEIN – A LITTLE HUMOR
CHAPTER 2 OF THE NOVEL DISCUSSES
FRANKENSTEIN’S INSPIRATIONS – WHO WERE THEY?
HTTPS://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=JM-UPHSP9KU
AT 13 VICTOR READS ABOUT NATURAL PHILOSOPHY
• Cornelius Agrippa
•
•
•
•
•
Renaissance philosopher
Believed in astrology and magic
Studied the effects of planetary motion on events
Investigated how elements worked together
Works were discredited
AT 13 VICTOR READS ABOUT NATURAL PHILOSOPHY
• Paracelsus
• Renaissance philosopher
• Introduced the concept of using chemicals rather than herbs
to treat diseases
• Asserted diseases were caused by external forces instead of
an internal imbalance in the “body’s humours.”
• Believed in the existence of the “philosopher’s stone,” a
substance that could change inexpensive metals into gold.
He also believed in an “elixir of life” that would cure all
diseases.
AT 13 VICTOR READS ABOUT NATURAL PHILOSOPHY
• Albertus Magnus
• Advocated examining the natural causes of
things/events rather than assuming God caused
everything.
• Idea that nature and people (still created by God)
can cause/create things.
AND ELECTRICITY STRIKES THE ELM TREE…
• Victor’s life changes at 15 when he sees lightening. What would
have been known in the 1700s?
• Electricity had captured the imaginations of many of Europe's top
scientists, and at that time very little was understood about it.
• Scientists could generate static electricity using spinning machines,
but it was not until Benjamin Franklin's famous kite experiment in
1752 that they proved that lightning was of the same essence.
ELECTRICITY AND GALVANISM OVERTAKE
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY IN VICTOR’S STUDIES
• What is Galvanism: bringing organisms to life using electricity. It
comes from the work of Luigi Galvani.
• Luigi Galvani
• Studied the effects of electricity on animals in the 1700s
• He experimented with touching a metal arc to dead frogs, which caused
the bodies to move. He believed this electricity that caused movement
resided in the animal and called it “animal electricity.”
• Alessandro Volta (think of volts) subsequently rightly argued that the
electricity came from the metal and was channeled through the frog.