Underground Human Experiments

Real Frankenstein... the still figure of George Forster was cut down and transported to an operating theater, for the newest experiment of mad scientist Giovanni Aldini.

When Mary Shelley wrote her Gothic novel Frankenstein she based the character of the mad scientist on the Italian physicist, Dr. Giovanni Aldini. Professor Aldini's famous galvanic experiments are still cited in medical text books. In the 19th century human test subjects for scientific experimentation were in plentiful supply.

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Shelley and Lord Byron decided to have a competition to see who could write the best tale of horror. Lord Byron penned the very first Vampire story, eighty years before Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula". In lieu of sleep, Mary Shelley wrote later, she was possessed by a waking dream where she beheld a "pale student of unhallowed arts, kneeling beside the thing he had put together." She "saw the hideous phantasm of a man, stretched out... showing signs of life and stirring... A human endeavor, mocking the Creator of the world."

Shelley was inspired by the real-life experiments of Giovanni Aldini. A handful of years later, there would be electric motors and electric lights. The only source of electricity available to the professor was in the form of a battery, a version of the Leyden Jar which already being used by scientists for half a century. Animal muscle is moved by electrical impulse, even when the animal is no longer living. Through experimentation on frogs and later on farm animals such as oxen, Aldini discovered that living tissue also stored an electrical charge, and muscles could be made to contract by application of an external charge, even after the demise of the host. He wanted to test his theory on a human body.

George Foster of London was charged with drowning his wife and his infant daughter. He stood trial at the Old Bailey in 1803. His mother-in-law testified the last time she had seen her daughter, the young woman had just left with her infant to join her husband. A landlord witnessed the three of them leaving their lodgings the next morning. George Foster returned alone that evening at nine PM. Tavern keepers testified the Foster family was bar hopping all day long... beer and brandy at the Spotted Dog, porter and rum at the Mitre, with further libation to follow at the Horse-Grenadier. At the public house however, George was seen to be drinking alone.

The next morning, the still form of a child was found under the bow of a boat one mile from the Mitre Tavern, by a boatman employed by the Paddington Canal authority. The boatman was then ordered to drag the canal. Three days later, within sight of the back window of the Mitre, the woman's body was found.

They had more than one child. Due to limited finances their two other children were living at a workhouse. George testified that after leaving the Mitre Tavern, he and his wife went their separate ways, and he walked in the direction of the workhouse to visit his other daughters. Halfway there he decided it was too dark to travel, so he returned home.

The jury found him guilty. His sentence was to hang, which was carried out four days later. Before his execution he confessed that he led his wife twice before to the Paddington Canal, with wicked intent to drown her, but his resolution failed him and she returned unhurt. He submitted to his punishment without protest, and after hanging for "the usual time" his figure was cut down and transported to a surgical operating theater, where without prior consent he would become a volunteer in the newest experiment of Dr. Aldini.

The audience of learned physicians filling the gallery was treated to the first demonstration of the galvanic process to be performed on man. Aldini attached electrodes at strategic points.

The Newgate Calendar of 1803 describes what next happened: "On application of 'the process' to the face, the jaws of the deceased criminal began to quiver, the adjoining muscles contorted rigidly, and one eye was opened. Subsequently the right hand was raised, and clenched, and his legs and thighs were set in motion. Uninformed bystanders thought the wretched man was on the verge of having life restored.

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