140 SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



and chemistry united their efforts to appreciate in the 

 minutest detail the action of external elements on the 

 living organism.^ The different combinations of organs, 

 or what we call the different classes, the different genera, 

 were not less studied than general theories. There were 

 no animals, ever so small, the inner parts of which, 

 unveiled by anatomy, did not become known as well 

 as our own. Every organic system was likewise sub- 

 mitted to a special examination. The brain, marking 

 the degree of intellectual power ; the teeth, signs of 

 the nature and energy of the digestive forces ; the bony 

 system, above all, which is the support of all others, 

 and which determines the connected forms of animals, 

 all these were followed into the smallest species and 

 into the minutest parts. We see how, after such studies, 

 there could be no more talk of superficial or artificial 

 methods. The old natural history had ceased to rule. 

 It was not that old natural history any more, but a 

 science full of life and youth, armed with quite novel 

 ways and means, which beheld the world reopened by 

 the Peace." ^ 



In an earlier passage,^ speaking of the reopening of 

 academies and schools by the Government of the Revolu- 



^ Compare with this the ' Rap- 

 port' of the year 1808, p. 201, &c. 

 The above remarks refer mainly to 

 Bichat. " Bichat a donnd a I'ana- 

 tomie un grand interet, par I'opposi- 

 tion de structure et de forme qu'il 

 a developpee, entre les organes de 

 la vie animale, c'est-a-dire, du senti- 

 ment et du mouvement, et ceux de 

 la vie purement v^g^tative. . . . 

 L'attention particuli^re donn^e par 

 Bichat au tissu et aux f onctions des 

 diverses membranes, et I'analogie 



qu'il a 6tablie entre celles de parties 

 tres dloigndes, ont jete aussi des 

 lumieres nouvelles sur I'anatomie, 

 principalement dans ses rapports 

 avec la medecine " ('Rapport,' p. 

 218). 



- This refers to the peace which 

 concluded the Napoleonic wars, and 

 re-established the free intercourse 

 of France with the rest of the world. 



^ In the "Eloge of Fourcroy," 

 of the year 1811 (' Eloges,' vol. ii. 

 p. 40, &c.) 



