BICHAT, MARIE FRANcOIS XAVIER French anatomist and physiologist, was born at Thoirette (Jura) on Nov. 14, 1771, the son of a physician. He studied anatomy and surgery under M. A. Petit (1766-1811), chief surgeon to the Hotel-Dieu at Lyons. The revolutionary disturbances drove him to Paris in 1793. He there became a pupil and then assistant of P. J. Desault, who died in 1795. He completed the fourth volume of Desault's Journal de Chirurgie, to which he added a biograph ical memoir of its author. He then wrote the Oeuvres chintrgicales de Desault, ou tableau de sa doctrine, et de sa pratique dans le traitement des maladies externes (1798-99), in which, although he professes only to set forth the ideas of another, he develops them with the clearness of one who is a master of the subject. In '797 he began a course of anatomical demonstrations, and then began to lecture on operative surgery and physiology. His Ana tomic generale 0800, contains the fruits of his most profound and original researches. His Anatomie descriptive (18oi–o3), in which the organs were arranged according to his peculiar classifica tion of their functions, was completed by his pupils, M. F. R. Buisson (1776-18o5) and P. J. Roux (1780-1854)• Before Bichat had attained the age of 28 he was appointed physician to the Hotel-Dieu, a situation which opened an im mense field to his ardent spirit of enquiry. He engaged in a series of examinations, with a view to ascertain the changes induced in the various organs by disease, and in less than six months he had opened about 600 bodies. A fall from a staircase at the Hotel Dieu resulted in a fever, and he died on July 22, 18°2. His bust, together with that of Desault, was placed in the Hotel-Dieu by order of Napoleon.