Guillaume-Benjamin Duchenne was the son of a fisherman, descended from a long line of mariners who had settled in the Boulogne-sur-Mer region of France.
In opposition to his father's wishes that he become a sailor, and driven by a fascination with science, Duchenne  enrolled at the University of Douai where he received his Baccalauréat at the age of 19.

He then trained under a number of distinguished Paris physicians including René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laënnec (1781–1826) and  Baron Guillaume Dupuytren (1777–1835) before returning to Boulogne and setting up in practice there.
Duchenne married a local woman, and, following the birth of their son, his wife died.
This resulted in a lengthy period of personal difficulties for Duchenne with his family and in a prolonged estrangement from his son (who later followed Duchenne into medical practice) and they were only reunited towards the end of his life.

In 1835, Duchenne began experimenting with therapeutic "électropuncture" (a technique recently invented by François Magendie and Jean-Baptiste Sarlandière by which electric shock was administered beneath the skin with sharp electrodes to stimulate the muscles).
After a brief and unhappy second marriage, Duchenne returned to Paris in 1842 in order to continue his medical research.
Here, he did not achieve a senior hospital appointment, but supported himself with a small private medical practice, while daily visiting a number of teaching hospitals, including the Salpêtrière psychiatric centre.
He developed a non-invasive technique of muscle stimulation that used faradic shock on the surface of the skin, which he called "électrisation localisée" and he published these experiments in his work, On Localized Electrization and its Application to Pathology and Therapy, first published in 1855.
A pictorial supplement to the second edition, Album of Pathological Photographs (Album de Photographies Pathologiques) was published in 1862.
A few months later, the first edition of his now much-discussed work, The Mechanism of Human Physiognomy, was published.
Were it not for this small, but remarkable, work, his next publication, the result of nearly 20 years of study, Duchenne's Physiology of Movements, his most important contribution to medical science, might well have gone unnoticed.

Despite his unorthodox procedures, and his often uneasy relations with the senior medical staff with whom he worked, Duchenne's single-mindedness obtained him an international standing as a neurologist and researcher.
He is counted as one of the developers of electro-physiology and electro-therapeutics, and he also showed that smiles resulting from true happiness not only utilize the muscles of the mouth but also those of the eyes: such "genuine" smiles are known as Duchenne smiles in his honor.
He is also credited with the discovery of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Duchenne died in 1875, after several years of illness.
He was never elected to the French Academy of Sciences.
Guillaume-Benjamin Duchenne was the son of a fisherman, descended from a long line of mariners who had settled in the Boulogne-sur-Mer region of France. In opposition to his father's wishes that he become a sailor, and driven by a fascination with science, Duchenne  enrolled at the University of Douai where he received his Baccalauréat at the age of 19.
He then trained under a number of distinguished Paris physicians including René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laënnec (1781–1826) and  Baron Guillaume Dupuytren (1777–1835) before returning to Boulogne and setting up in practice there. Duchenne married a local woman, and, following the birth of their son, his wife died. This resulted in a lengthy period of personal difficulties for Duchenne with his family and in a prolonged estrangement from his son (who later followed Duchenne into medical practice) and they were only reunited towards the end of his life.
In 1835, Duchenne began experimenting with therapeutic "électropuncture" (a technique recently invented by François Magendie and Jean-Baptiste Sarlandière by which electric shock was administered beneath the skin with sharp electrodes to stimulate the muscles). After a brief and unhappy second marriage, Duchenne returned to Paris in 1842 in order to continue his medical research. Here, he did not achieve a senior hospital appointment, but supported himself with a small private medical practice, while daily visiting a number of teaching hospitals, including the Salpêtrière psychiatric centre. He developed a non-invasive technique of muscle stimulation that used faradic shock on the surface of the skin, which he called "électrisation localisée" and he published these experiments in his work, On Localized Electrization and its Application to Pathology and Therapy, first published in 1855. A pictorial supplement to the second edition, Album of Pathological Photographs (Album de Photographies Pathologiques) was published in 1862. A few months later, the first edition of his now much-discussed work, The Mechanism of Human Physiognomy, was published. Were it not for this small, but remarkable, work, his next publication, the result of nearly 20 years of study, Duchenne's Physiology of Movements, his most important contribution to medical science, might well have gone unnoticed.
Despite his unorthodox procedures, and his often uneasy relations with the senior medical staff with whom he worked, Duchenne's single-mindedness obtained him an international standing as a neurologist and researcher. He is counted as one of the developers of electro-physiology and electro-therapeutics, and he also showed that smiles resulting from true happiness not only utilize the muscles of the mouth but also those of the eyes: such "genuine" smiles are known as Duchenne smiles in his honor. He is also credited with the discovery of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Duchenne died in 1875, after several years of illness. He was never elected to the French Academy of Sciences.
Duchenne de Boulogne