Making Up for 'Temps Perdu' in Physiological and Literary Discourse: Helmholtz, Marey, Proust

In 1851, Hermann von Helmholtz sent to the Académie des Sciences de Paris a communication on the time-lapse between an electrical stimulus and the physiological muscle reaction provoked, denoted by the term ‘temps perdu’. The concept, popularized in France (and modified) by physiologist Étienne-Jules Marey, became widespread in French medical writings. Commentators have identified an apparent connection between Helmholtzian ‘temps perdu’ and the title À la recherche du temps perdu, supposedly informed by Proust’s familiarity with the contemporary medical milieu, of which his father, acquainted with Marey, was a member. Such commentary, frequently by scientists, is typically biographical, and focuses on the titular coincidence or on the related notion, coined by Marey and entitling a section of Sodome et Gomorrhe, of ‘intermittences du cœur’ (as distinct from Xavier Bichat’s notion of ‘intermittence’, an established topic in Proust criticism). This article considers the interconnected notions of ‘temps perdu’ and ‘intermittences du cœur’ in terms of decisive slippages in their meaning, firstly in physiological discourse, particularly in Marey’s writings on blood circulation (overlooked by Proust criticism in favour of his ‘kinetoscopic’ work), and then, through identification of their plausible reiterations in Proust’s novel’s use of physiological and technological analogy, in literary discourse.