In the middle of the 19th century, muscle paralysis captured the interest of anatomists. Later on, pathologists and clinicians also became interested in the disease. The clinical features of the disease were largely defined by the English physician Meryon and the French physician Duchenne. It has now become clear that Meryon made the first systematic clinical and pathological study of the type of dystrophy with whose name Duchenne is usually associated, although Duchenne extended the observations, and many investigators since then have identified a variety of muscular dystrophies.