He made Du Bois-Reymond in 1840 his assistant in physiology, and as a starting-point for an inquiry put into his hands the essay which the Italian Carlo Matteucci, had just published on the electric phenomena of animals.
Eusebio Valli (1755–1816) was a physician from Lari, Pisa, Italy, who in the shadows of Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta also studied the phenomenon of animal electricity or bioelectricity.