179 BIOLOGY AND ITS MAKERS 
intensity and completeness with which he had pursued his 
investigations, thus giving to his work a lasting quality. 
First came his treatise on the membranes (Traié des 
Membranes); followed quickly by his Physiological Re- 
searches into the Phenomena of Life and Death (Recherches 
Physiologiques sur la Vie et la Mort); then appeared his 
General Anatomy (Anatomie Générale) in 1801, and his trea- 
tise upon Descriptive Anatomy, upon which he was working 
at the time of his death. 
His death occurred in 1801, and was due partly to an 
accident. He slipped upon the stairs of the dissecting-room, 
and his fall was followed by gastric derangement, from which 
he died. 
Results of His Work.—The new science of the anatomy 
of the tissues which he founded is now known as histology, 
and the general anatomy, as he called it, has now become 
the study of minute anatomy of the tissues. Bichat studied 
the membranes or tissues very profoundly, but he did not 
employ the microscope and make sketches of their cellular 
construction. ‘The result of his work was to set the world 
studying the minute structure of the tissues, a consequence 
of which led to the modern study of histology. Since this 
science was constructed directly upon his foundation, it is 
proper to recognize him as the founder of histology. 
Carpenter says of him: ‘ Altogether Bichat left an impress 
upon the science of life, the depth of which can scarcely be 
overrated; and this not so much by the facts which he col- 
lected and generalized, as by the method of inquiry which 
he developed, and by the systematic form which he gave to 
the study of general anatomy in its relations both to physi- 
ology and pathology.” 
Bichat’s More Notable Successors.—His influence ex- 
tended far, and after the establishment of the cell-theory 
took on a new phase. Microscopic study of the tissues has 
