Pierre-Hubert Nysten (30 October 1771 – 3 March 1818) was a French physiologist and pediatrician who was a native of Liège.

Biography

He studied medicine in Paris, and eventually became a professor at the École de Médecine in Paris. Shortly before his death, he attained the position of médecin-chef at the Hospice des Enfants Assistés (children's hospital) in Paris. With Xavier Bichat (1771–1802), Nysten performed pioneer experiments in cardiology, including studies involving the effects of galvanic current on the heart. In 1805 he studied silkworm diseases in southern France, and provided an early description of polyhedrosis. He also described symptoms associated with albuminuria, and in 1811 provided a scientific description of rigor mortis. The eponymous "Nysten's Law" defines the progressive states of cadaveric rigidity during rigor mortis.

Written works

In 1810 with Joseph Capuron (1767–1850), he published the second edition of the Nouveau dictionnaire de médecine, de chirurgie, de physique, de chimie et d'histoire naturelle, and in 1814 Nysten published a revised edition of the dictionary. He was also the author of the following: