382 SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



indeed for the name, but for the modern science and 

 direction of biology, was Xavier Bichat, who during the 

 short period of his remarkable career (1771 to 1802) 

 remodelled biological studies. He approached the sub- 

 ject from the side of medicine and in a philosophical 

 spirit. In 1800 there appeared two treatises, one 

 on the membranes and tissues, and another entitled 

 '" Eecherches physiologiques sur la vie et la mort." 

 These by their titles already reveal the twofold aspect 

 of biological science which drew the attention of Bichat 

 and his school. First, the attempt to reform biological 

 and medical knowledge by a close anatomical examination 

 of organic tissues in their normal and diseased states, for 

 the purpose of which he, within a very short time, ex- 

 amined six hundred corpses. The fuller account of his 

 researches is given in the four volumes of the ' Anatomic 

 Generale' (1801) and in the posthumous five volumes 

 of the 'Anatomie Descriptive,' completed by some of 

 his numerous pupils and followers after his death. In 

 these works Bichat created the science of histology 

 without resorting to the microscope, which was to do 

 such good service in the hands of those who came 

 after him, and without that application of physical and 

 chemical principles which during his time (notably 

 by Lavoisier and his school) had been applied with 

 much success in the theory of animal combustion and 

 in the foundation of another new science that of 

 organic chemistry. The reasons which inclined Bichat 

 to distrust the microscope were the delusive nature of 

 the revelations of the imperfect instruments then in use. 

 They disappeared when, in the course of the next thirty 



