384 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



functions which resist death. He adopts, on the one 

 side, the method of looking for the explanation of the 

 phenomena of matter in the properties of matter. In 

 the introduction to the ' Anatomie Ge'nerale,' he says : 1 

 " The connection of the properties as causes with the 

 phenomena as effects is an axiom which has become 

 almost tiresome to repeat nowadays in physics and 

 chemistry : if my book establishes an analogous axiom 

 in the physiological sciences, it will have fulfilled its 

 purpose." But being convinced of the essential difference 

 of the object with which the physiologist is concerned, 



1 Claude Bernard (1813-78), from 

 whose various writings the passages 

 of Bichat are mostly taken, has very 

 fully analysed the theoretical views 

 of his eminent predecessor. The 

 following books belong to the best, 

 in substance and notably in style, 

 that have been written on the sub- 

 ject : 'La Science Experimentale,' 

 3 rae ed., 1890 ; especially : 'Defini- 

 tion de la vie, ' p. 149, &c. ; ' Leeons 

 sur les Phenomenes de la vie com- 

 muns aux animaux et aux vege- 

 taux,' 1878, especially vol. i. p. 57, 

 &c. ; ' Rapport sur les progres et 

 la marche de la Physiologic ge"nerale 

 en France,' 1867. Introduction. 

 Although Bichat was a vitalist, he 

 took a first and important step in 

 the direction of getting out of the 

 vitalistic conceptions which be in- 

 herited from Haller, and which had 

 assumed a special form in the 

 Montpellier school. Through his. 

 foundation of physiological research 

 upon an anatomical study of tissues, 

 he localised the problem of physi- 

 ology. Had he proceeded further 

 on the lines he himself started, he 

 would have thrown off, like his 

 successors, notably Magendie, the 

 hypothetical distinction between 

 physical, chemical, and vital pro- 

 perties, and become a pure ex- 



perimentalist. The founder of this 

 purely experimental school in 

 France was Magendie (1783-1855). 

 It is interesting to note that prior 

 to Magendie in France, Charles 

 Bell in London had led up to 

 experimental physiology in Eng- 

 land by his famous distinction be- 

 tween sensory and motor nerves 

 (1811). But, according to Claude 

 Bernard, this anatomical distinction 

 required experimental verification 

 in a living animal. Magendie 

 furnished this in 1822, and, together 

 with this corner-stone of modern 

 physiology, laid the foundations of 

 the art of vivisection, with all its 

 wonderful discoveries and its dis- 

 favour in certain quarters. There 

 is no doubt that for many years 

 Paris became, through this in- 

 novation, the centre of medical 

 teaching on the Continent. As to 

 the distinctive merits of Bell and 

 Magendie, see Claude Bernard's 

 exhaustive examination ('Physiol. 

 gen.,' p. 11, &c.), but also Du Bois- 

 Reymond's Eloge of Johannes 

 Muller ('Reden,' vol. ii. p. 176, 

 &c. ) According to him the 

 "Thesis" of Bell was not generally 

 considered to be proved till after 

 Miiller's experiments in 1831. 



