Etienne Jules Marey

Born Mar. 5, 1830, in Beaune, department of Côte-d’Or; died May 15, 1904, in Paris. French physiologist; member of the Paris Academy of Sciences (1878). Professor at the Collège de France (from 1867).

Marey’s chief works were devoted to blood circulation and the physiology of movements in animals and humans. He developed a method for the graphic recording of physiological processes. He constructed a device (Marey capsule) for automatically recording the movements of animal organs and a number of devices for photographing movements; he improved devices for the graphic registration of the activity of the heart (cardiograph) and the pulse (sphygniograph). Using new methods, he defined more accurately the performance of the organism’s motor functions (such as muscular work while walking or running).