Already in the nineteenth century, Professor D'Arsonval contributed greatly to the emerging field of electrophysiology, the study of the effects of electricity on biological organisms.
D'Arsonval was born at Château de la Borie, in La Porcherie, Haute Vienne, France. He studied medicine in Limoges and Paris and received his doctorate in medicine in 1877. From 1873 to 1878 he was an assistant to Claude Bernard, one of the founders of experimental physiology. After Bernard's death he assisted Charles-Edouard Brown-S'Equard (1817-1894) where he lectured and when Brown-S'Equard died in 1894 he replaced him as professor at the College de France.
Influenced by Bernard, D'Arsonval decided to devote his life to research. In 1892 he became director of the new biophysics laboratory at the College de France and continued in this position until 1910. His main contributions were in electrophysiology. From 1889 onwards, D'Arsonval carried out the first investigations into the physiological effects of alternating current on the body. He discovered that currents with a frequency above 5000 Hz do not cause muscle contractions and the nerve stimulation effects of an electric shock. Instead, they seemed to have beneficial effects. He was a pioneer in the field of therapeutic use of high-frequency current in the body and thus founded the field of electrotherapy. He developed a resonant apparatus for generating currents of 0,5-2 MHz called “D'Arsonval currents” for a therapy that became known as “D'Arsonvalization”.
D'Arsonvalization is an electrotechnology in which a painless therapeutic effect is provided by pulsed exposure of the body to high voltage (20 to 40 kV) and frequency (110 to 140 kHz) and low force (0,015 to 0,2 A). Later it was used for diathermy. Capacitive diathermy or deep superheating is an indispensable treatment method in physiotherapy.
