A 19th century Fitbit?

A 19th century Fitbit?

This strange illustration comes from a book titled Animal Mechanism: A Treatise on Terrestrial and Aërial Locomotion, by Etienne-Jules Marey. Marey was a pioneer in the various fields such as cardiology, scientific laboratory photography, and cinematography. He even made improvements on Eadweard Muybridge motion picture studies by making the captures more scientifically accurate.

Here, a runner, not a cyborg, is provided with an apparatus intended to register his different paces.