XXIII 

 MARIE FRANgO'IS XAVIER BICHAT 



I 77 I - I 802 



Bichaf was horn in the French town of Thoirette {Department of 

 Ain), November 14, 177 1. At the University of Lyons he was espe- 

 cially interested in anatomy, surgery, and natural history. In 1793, 

 because of the Revolution, he fled to Paris, where he studied under 

 the eminent surgeon Desault. In 1800 he distinguished between 

 animal and organic functions and after many dissections he de- 

 veloped, in 1801, his famous doctrine of tissues. He died July 22, 

 1802, from injuries received in a fall. 



THE DOCTRINE OF TISSUES * 

 OBJECT OF THE WORK 



The general doctrine of this work has not precisely the character of 

 any of those which have prevailed in medicine. Opposed to that of 

 Boerhaave, it differs from that of Stahl and those authors who, like 

 him, refer everything in the living economy to a single principle, purely 

 speculative, ideal, and imaginary, whether designated by the name of 

 soul, vital principle, or archeus. The general doctrine of this work 

 consists in analyzing with precision the properties of living bodies, in 

 showing that every physiological phenomenon is ultimately referable to 

 these properties considered in their natural state ; that every patho- 

 logical phenomenon derives from them augmentation, diminution, or 

 alteration ; that every therapeutic phenomenon has for its principle the 

 restoration of that part of the natural type, from which it has been 

 changed ; in determining with precision the cases in which each prop- 

 erty is brought into action ; in distinguishing accurately in physiology 



* Translated from Traite stir les Membranes (1800). 



168 



