( 78 ) 



to his master, the famous Pinel, who taught that disease consisted in 

 an alteration in the tissue of an organ ; and, in his turn, Pinel profited 

 from the work of Bichat. His work falls in direct line with that of 

 Haller. Sensibility and contractibility play their part. How strange 

 is his definition of life — not life, but death stands in the forefront. 

 La ric est V ensemble des fonctiom qui reoistent a la mart. "Life is the 

 sum total of the forces that resist death." His great work on Anatomy 

 and his other works seem to have obtained greater recognition from 

 the physicians than from the anatomists. Bichat is regarded as the 

 founder of General Anatomy, although he did not use a microscope. 

 In his famous work, in Section VI. " Remarks on the Organization of 

 Animals," he sets forth his doctrine of tissues : — 



" All animals are compounded of various organs, each of which, exercising a separate 

 function, and in a manner peculiar to itself, concurs to the preservation of the whole. 

 These organs are so many distinct and collateral machines, subordinate to the great and 

 general machine. Each individual machine accordingly is itself composed of several 

 tissues differing in nature, and constituting the real elements of these organs. 

 Chemistry has its simple bodies, which, by various combinations they admit 

 of, form the compound ones ; these are caloric, light, hydrogen, oxygen, <fcc. 

 Anatomy, in like manner, has its simple tissues, which, by their combinations, form the 

 organs properly so called. These tissues are (1) The cellular membrane, (2) The nerves of 

 animal life, (3) The nerves of organic life, (4) The arteries, &c, and so on, in all 21, the 

 last being the cutis." 



" That any one should have accomplished so much, and of such a nature, so original, 

 so vast, so practical, and, it may be added, so perfect, in such a short period of existence, 

 is only to be attributed to the possession of genius, accompanied by the most patient and 

 indefatigable industry." " Bichat fell a victim to his zeal for science and his profession, 

 and died in the height of his prosperity and reputation. No one was ever more sincerely 

 mourned ; his loss was a national one, and such it was felt to be. Corvisart communicated 

 the intelligence of the death of Bichat to the First Consul, Napoleon, in the following 

 words : — ' Bichat vient de mourir sur un champ de bataille qui compte aussi plus 

 d'une victime ; personne en si peu de temps n'a fait tant de choses et aussi bien.' " 

 (T. J. Pettigrew.) 



The portrait here given of Bichat does not bring out the remark- 

 able asymmetry of his head, the left side being much more prominent. 

 (Cloquet, Traite d'Anatomie, L, pi. xxix.) 



THOMAS YOUNG. 



1773-1829. 



IT is from the life of Young by the Dean of Ely, George Peacock, 

 D.D. (1855), that the following account is mainly taken, and the 

 collotype is, by permission of Mr. A. H. Hallam Murray, copied 

 from Young's portrait in that work. The original was painted by 

 Sir Thomas Lawrence. T. Young was born of Quaker parents, at 



