Definition of "galvanism"

Perhaps a corpse would be re-animated; galvanism had given token of such things: perhaps the component parts of a creature might be manufactured, brought together, and endued with vital warmth.

1831 October 15, Mary W[ollstonecraft] Shelley, “Introduction”, in Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus (Standard Novels; IX), 3rd edition, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], published 31 October 1831, page x

The sudden application of galvanism to bands of savages may fairly rank as a new sensation, and they, thinking the wire held this strange and mysterious power, wisely left it alone.

1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 101

Erb and Remak in Germany, Beard and Rockwell and Althans in America, have used it with advantage, in the forms of galvanisms and faradisms, in the treatment of joint troubles.

1892, Journal of Electrotherapeutics: Volume 10