DUCHENNE, GUILLAUME-BENJAMIN-AMAND

born Sept. 17, 1806, Boulogne, Fr. died Sept. 15, 1875, Paris French neurologist, who was first to describe several nervous and muscular disorders and, in developing medical treatment for them, created electrodiagnosis and electrotherapy. During his lifelong private practice in Boulogne (183142) and Paris (184275), he explored the effects of electrical stimulation on diseased nerves and muscles. He rendered the first accounts of several types of muscular atrophy and paralysis caused by nerve disorders, including (1858) tabes dorsalis, or locomotor ataxia, a muscular atrophy caused by a degeneration of the dorsal columns of the spinal cord and sensory nerve trunks. His invention of an instrument (now known as Duchenne's trocar) to remove small portions of tissue located deep in the body founded the diagnostic practice of biopsy. His best-known writings are De l'lectrisation localise (1855) and Physiologie des mouvements (1867).