CHAPTER VIII 



BICHAT AND THE BIRTH OF HISTOLOGY 



WE must recognize Bichat as one of the foremost men in 

 biological history, although his name is not well known to the 

 general public, nor constantly referred to by biologists as 

 that of one of the chief luminaries of their science. In him 

 was combined extraordinary talent with powers of intense 

 and prolonged application; a combination which has always 

 produced notable results in the world. He died at the age 

 of thirty-one, but, within a productive period of not more 

 than seven years, he made observations and published work 

 that created an epoch and made a lasting impression on bio- 

 logical history. 



His researches supplemented those of Cuvier, and carried 

 the analysis of animal organization to a deeper level. Cuvier 

 laid the foundations of comparative anatomy by dissecting 

 and arranging in a comprehensive system the organs of ani- 

 mals, but Bichat went a step further and made a profound 

 study of the tissues that unite to make up the organs. As we 

 have already noted in a previous chapter, this was a step in 

 reaching the conception of the real organization of living 

 beings. 



Buckle's Estimate of Bichat. It is interesting to note 

 the impression made by Bichat upon one of the greatest 

 students of the history of civilization. Buckle says of him : 

 "Great, however, as is the name of Cuvier, a greater still 

 remains behind. I allude, of course, to Bichat, whose repu- 



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