A solitary, tenacious and persevering worker, this physician to the fishermen of Boulogne, continuing his early experiments in Paris (where he met Charcot), was the first to observe the localized effects of the faradic current (localized electrification), thus creating electro-diagnosis and electrotherapy. As a clinician, he was the first to describe progressive locomotor ataxia and certain forms of progressive nuclear atrophy, introducing the concept of functional impotence of the muscles without paralysis, due solely to atrophy. Duchenne was a religious man and left traces of his convictions in his writings.
BIBL.: Works: De l'électrisation localisée et de son application à la physiologie, à la pathologie et à la thérapeutique, Paris 1855; Mécanisme de la physionomie humaine ou analyse électrophysiologique de l'expression des passions, ibid. 1862. Biographical data: P. Guilly, D. de Boulogne, ibid. 1936, with complete bibliography of his works. Luigi Seremini