ARSONVAL, ARSNE D'

born June 8, 1851, La Borie, Fr. died Dec. 31, 1940, La Borie in full Jacques-arsne D'arsonval French physician and physicist known for his researches in electrotherapy. Arsonval studied at the University of Piters and at Limoges and Paris, becoming a doctor of medicine in 1877. In 1882 he was named director of the Laboratory of Biological Physics of the Collge de France, Paris, where he was appointed professor in 1894. Arsonval's early research into animal heat, muscle contraction, and electrophysiology led to his invention of devices used to treat diseases through electricity. He introduced the first reflecting moving-coil galvanometers used to measure weak electric currents (1882), invented mechanisms to obtain high-frequency currents used to treat diseases of the skin and mucous membranes (d'Arsonvalization; 1890), and demonstrated how a human being could conduct an alternating current strong enough to light an electric lamp (1892).