THE BIRTH OF HISTOLOGY 167 
tation is steadily advancing as our knowledge advances; 
who, if we compare the shortness of his life with the reach and 
depth of his views, must be pronounced the most profound 
thinker and consummate observer by whom the organization 
of the animal frame has yet been studied. 
“We may except Aristotle, but between Aristotle and 
Bichat I find no middle man.” 
Whether or not we agree fully with this panegyric of 
Buckle, we must, I think, place Bichat among the most illus- 
trious men of biological history, as Vesalius, J. Miiller, Von 
Baer, and Balfour. 
Marie Francois Xavier Bichat was born in 1771 at 
Thoirette, department of the Ain. His father, who was a 
physician, directed the early education of his son and had 
the satisfaction of seeing him take kindly to intellectual pur- 
suits. The young student was distinguished in Latin and 
mathematics, and showed early a fondness for natural his- 
torv. Having elected to follow the calling of his father, he 
went to Lyons to study medicine, and came under the 
instruction of Petit in surgery. 
Bichat in Paris.—It was, on the whole, a fortunate cir- 
cumstance for Bichat that the turbulent events of the French 
Revolution drove him from Lyons to Paris, where he could 
have the best training, the greatest stimulus for his growth, 
and at the same time the widest field for the exercise of his 
talents. We find him in Paris in 1793, studying under the 
great surgeon Desault. 
He attracted attention to himself in the class of this dis- 
tinguished teacher and operator by an extemporaneous report 
on one of the lectures. It was the custom in Desault’s classes 
to have the lectures of the professor reported upon before an 
assistant by some student especially appointed for the pur- 
pose. On one occasion the student who had been appointed 
to prepare and deliver the review was absent, and Bichat, 
