He correlated the electrical effects produced by various metal couples on the muscle with differences in the metals’ ease of oxidation. His suggestion that current was due to a chemical interaction between the metals was the first electrochemical explanation of this phenomenon. The apparatus shown is Ritter’s device for detecting direction of current flow between metals and conductive frog thighs.

Ritter was born in Samitz, Silesia (now Poland) and began his career as an apothecary. He went to the University of Jena in 1796 to pursue his interests in science. It was at Jena that he experimented with silver chloride. Although it was known that AgCl decomposed in light, Ritter found that this process was most efficient in the presence of “invisible” radiation, beyond the violet end of the spectrum. This radiation became known as ultraviolet radiation.

Ritter was fascinated by experiments in electrical excitation of muscle and sensory organs as well as the electrophysiology of plants. Much of his success in such studies was due to use of his own body, even at very high voltages. Such work may have exacted a high, personal toll from Ritter. He became very ill. While embroiled in several controversies as a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences (Munich), he died at the young age of 33.

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