MAGENDIE, FRANÇOIS, an eminent physiologist, the son of a physician in Paris, was born at Bordeaux in October 1783. At an early age he was removed to the capital; and after attending school for some time, became a pupil of Boyer, the eminent surgeon. He was then successively appointed aide d'anatomie in the Faculty of Medicine, a demonstrator, and physician to the Hotel Dieu. In 1816 he published Précis Élémentaire de Physiologie, 8vo, a work, which, in some of its subsequent editions, appeared under the title of Éléments de Physiologie. His Recherches Physiologiques et Médicales sur les Causes, les Symptômes, et le Traitement de la Gravelle, was published at Paris in 1818. In 1819 he became a member of the Academy of Sciences. One of his most important works, Formulaire pour la Préparation et Emploi de plusieurs nouveaux Médicaments, appeared in 1821, and was soon after translated into all the European languages. In 1831 Magendie became professor of anatomy in the College of France. He published in 1839 Leçons sur les Phénomènes Physiques de la Vie, and Leçons sur les Fonctions et les Maladies du Système Nerveux. In 1842 was printed at Paris his Recherches Philosophiques et Cliniques sur le Liquide Céphalo-Rachidien.
dien ou Cerebro-Spinal. Magendie died in October 1855. Among his important services to science may be named his demonstration that the two roots of the spinal nerves have two distinct functions. Sir Charles Bell had previously shown that the nerves sometimes perform the double function of sensation and volition, and Magendie clearly established and admirably illustrated the fact, that the two roots of the spinal nerves are always devoted to two separate functions. He likewise discovered that the veins are the principal agents in absorption; that food destitute of nitrogen is not nutritious; and that strychnia produces asphyxia by acting upon the spinal cord, and by thus paralyzing the nerves of respiration.