CHAPTER VIII 
BICHAT AND THE BIRTH OF HISTOLOGY 
WE must recognize Bichat as one of the foremost men in 
biological history, although his name is not well known to the 
general public, nor constantly referred to by biologists as 
that of one of the chief luminaries of their science. In him 
was combined extraordinary talent with powers of intense 
and prolonged application; a combination which has always 
produced notable results in the world. He died at the age 
of thirty-one, but, within a productive period of not more 
than seven years, he made observations and published work 
that created an epoch and made a lasting impression on bio- 
logical history. 
His researches supplemented those of Cuvier, and carried 
the analysis of animal organization to a deeper level. Cuvier 
laid the foundations of comparative anatomy by dissecting 
and arranging in a comprehensive system the organs of ani- 
mals, but Bichat went a step further and made a profound 
study of the tissues that unite to make up the organs. As we 
have already noted in a previous chapter, this was a step in 
reaching the conception of the real organization of living 
beings. 
Buckle’s Estimate of Bichat.—-It is interesting to note 
the impression made by Bichat upon one of the greatest 
students of the history of civilization. Buckle says of him: 
“Great, however, as is the name of Cuvier, a greater still 
remains behind. JI allude, of course, to Bichat, whose repu- 
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