French neurologist who advanced the science of muscular electrophysiology (electromyography); first to practise muscle biopsy, the harvesting of living tissue samples, with an invention he called, 'l'emporte-pièce' (Duchenne's trocar); his book, 'Mécanisme de la Physionomie Humaine' (1862) was the first neurophysiology text on emotion and established a landmark in the history of clinical medical photography; his electrical experiments on the facial musculature exerted an enormous influence through Charles Darwin's 'The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals'; several myopathies that now bear his name, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Duchenne-Aran spinal muscular atrophy and Duchenne-Erb paralysis, Duchenne's disease, Duchenne's sign, Duchenne's syndrome, Aran-Duchenne disease.