BICH AT (MAAta Faexcots RAvtan), celebrat ed as an Anatomist and Physiologist, was born in France, at a village called Thoirette, on the 11th of November 1771. Great attention was paid to his education by his father, who was himself a physician, and who initiated him at an early age in those studies which were to prepare him more par ticularly for the profession to which he had destined him. He studied first at the College of Nantua, and afterwards at a seminary at Lyons ; and was early distinguished for that activity of mind and facility in acquiring knowledge, which are the sure presage of great attainments at a mature age. In Mathematics and the Physical Sciences more especially dependant on abstract reasoning, for which he showed a re markable predilection, he made rapid progress. He afterwards became passionately fond of Natural His tory, and devoted all his time to this new study. He had already made considerable advances m this branch of science, as he had before done in Natural Philosophy and Mathematics, when his ar dour was suddenly checked by the reflection that he was engaging in pursuits that were boundless in their object, and that were in danger of lead ing him too far from his future profession, through which alone he aspired at celebrity. ' Bidding a dime therefore, with a singular effort of resole ' tion, to his fhvourite occupations, he applied him self at once with great diligence to the study of Anatomy and Surgery, under the guidance of Pe tit, who was chief-surgeon to the Hotel Dieu at Lyons. It is also curious that, some time after he " had fully engaged in this course of instruction, he experienced a relapse of his passion for Mathematics to such a degree, that, yielding to the fascination, he resumed his early studies, in which, however, he had sufficient discretion to restrict himself within such limits as- did not interfere with his medical pursuits. Petit soon discerned the superior talents of his pu. pil ; and, although he had scarcely attained the age of twenty, employed him constantly as his assistant in his professional labours. The revolutionary dis turbances, which raged with so much fury at Lyons, unfortunately interrupted his progress, in the midst of the flattering prospects which were opening to him : and flying from the horrors of the siege, which that devoted city was about to sustain, he took refuge in Paris, about the end of the year 1793. He there resumed the course of his professional studies, and became the assiduous attendant upon the Lectures of the celebrated Dessault; and in this, as in the for mer instance, became, in no long time, the com panion and friend of his instructor. His merit was brought to the notice of Dessault by an accidental circumstance. It had been an established custom e in the school, that the substance of the lecture of the preceding day was to be recapitulated, as an ex ercise, before the_whole class, by one of the pupils, selected for this purpose. It happened one day that the pupil on whom this task devolved was absent at the time when he was expected to perform it, and the Professor asked if any one among his auditory would offer himself as a substitute. Bich& boldly came for ward to volunteer his services, and acquitted himself to the admiration of all his hearers. The subject be had to explain was the theory and treatment of frac tures of the clavicle. The exact analysis which he made of the instructions contained in the lecture, the copiousness and novelty of his illustrations, and the spirit of order and of method which characterized the whole of his exposition, joined to the modesty with which he stated some doubts, as well as some original views which he had taken of the subject, revealed at once the extent and vigour of his genius, and the expectations which might justly be enter tained of his future eminence in his profession. Des sault, in particular, was strongly impressed with the superiority he had manifested over all his other pu pils ; and from that day he became an inmate in his house, and was treated in all respects as an adopted son.' The opportunities which fortune thus placed within his reach were eagerly employed ; and the favoured pupil showed himself worthy of the protec tion and confidence which be received. We find him, between the years 1793 and 1795, actively participating in all the labours of Dessault : visiting his patients both at the hospital and in private, ac companying him every where, as his assistant in hie operations, and writing the greater part of his let ter", in answer to those who consulted him from a distance. His exertions by no means closed with the day ; and he passed a great portion of the night in assisting to conduct the experimental researches on the diseases of bones, in which that able surgeon was engaged, and in consulting, previous to each lecture, the works of the ancient authors on the sub jects to which they related. Whatever Dassault ex pressed a desire to have done, and be often required more than an ordinary person would have supposed it possible to perform, was sure to be accomplished within the requisite time by his indefatigable pupil. Notwithstanding these multiplied occupations, Bichet found means to prosecute his own researches in Ana tomy and Physiology, to which he devoted every in terval of leisure he could seise. The sudden death of Dassault, who was snatched from the world in the meridian of his fame, was a severe stroke of adver sity to Bichit ; but the event, though it deeply af flicted, did not discourager him : and though it might interrupt for a time, did not eventually relax his ef forts at advancement. His first care seems to have
been to acquit himself of the obligations he owed his benefactor, by contributing to the support of his wi dow and her son ; and by conducting to a close the fourth volume of Dessault's Journal de Chiron*. To this volume he subjoined a biographical memoir of its author, in which he pays a just tribute to his merit. His next object was to reunite and digest in one body the different surgical doctrines which Dassault had advanced in fugitive papers, published in various periodical works. Of these he, in 1797, composed a work, in two volumes octavo, entitled auores CAirurgicales de Dessault, o u Tableau de as Doctrine, et de sa Pratiq ue dam le Traiteinent dos Maladies Externs : a work in which, although he professes only to explain the ideas of another, he de velop.' them with the clearness and copiousness of one who is in perfect possession of the subject which he treats. He was now at liberty to pursue the fell bent of his genius, and soon arrived at those com prehensive and masterly views of Physiology, which, when afterwards developed in his writings, gained him so much applause. Undisturbed by the storms which agitated the political world, he pursued with steadiness the course he had meditated, and direct ed his more immediate attention to Surgery, which it was then his design to practise. We meet with many proofs of his industry and success, at this pe riod, in the Receded de in Social Midicale d'Ensu lotion, an association of which Bichat was one of the most zealous and active members. Three me moirs which he communicated, were published by the Society in 1796 ; the first, describing an im provement in the instrument for trepanning ; the se cond, detailing a new process, which he devised for the ligature of polypi; and the third, in the distinc tion to be observed in fractures of the clavicle, be. tween those cases requiring the assistance of art, and those in which its interihrence would be of no avail. In 1797, we And him undertaking the ardu ous task of instructing others, which he commenced by a course of anatomical demonstrations.' Not ex pecting any great number of pupils, he had hired a small room for the purpose ; but his merit as a teacher soon attracted a crowd of auditors; be was Fobl*ed to enlarge his theatre, and was also encour. Aged to extend the plan of his lectures, and to an nounce what had hitherto never been attempted by one so young and inexperienced, a course of opera tive surgery. If the boldness of the enterprise was calculated to excite surprise, his success in the exe cution of it was still more astonishing. His reputa tion was now fully established, and he was ever after the favourite teacher with the students who resorted to the capital. In the following year, 1798, he gave, in addition to his course on Anatomy and ope rative Surgery, a separate course of Physiology. But the exertion of speaking, which these numerous coarser of lectures, all of which he conducted at the same time, required, was more than his frame could bear ; and a dangerous luemoptysis, with which he was seized in the midst of his labours, obliged him to interrupt them for a time, and warned him that there are limits to human strength. But the danger was no sooner passed, than the lesson seems to have been disregarded ; for we find him plunging into new engagements with the same ardour as before. He bad now scope in his physiological lectures for a fuller exposition of his original views in the animal econoniy, which were no sooner made known to his wells, than they excited much attention in the me dical schools at Paris; and he was induced to pub lish them hi a more authentic form. Sketches of these doctrines were given by him in three pa pers contained in the Memoirs of the Societe ltfedi sale d'Emulation. The first is on the synovial mem branes; in which he gives a more clear description of the organ that secrets synovia, a fluid, the origin of which had been a matter of much controversy. The next contains an account of the membranes of the human body in general, which he considers a part from the organs they invest and support, and which to supply with vessels; and regards as performing offices in the economy distinct from those of the organs with which they are so connect ed. His last memoir relates to the symmetry, which is so remarkable a feature in all those parts of the body that are the instruments of the animal func tions, and which establishes so exact a similarity be tween the limbs and organs of sense on each side of the body ; while, on the other hand, no such regu larity can be traced in the forms and dispositions of the viscera, which, like the heart, the stomach, liver, and other organs of assimilation, are subser vient to the vital functions. He even assumes this difference as the foundation of a marked distinction between these two classes of functions • the one, being common to all organized beings, functions; denomi nates organic ; the other, as exclusively pertaining to animality, be denotes by the name of animal functions. The doctrines contained in these me moirs were afterwards more fully developed in his Traits sur let Membranes, which appeared in 1800; and which immediately drew the attention of the me dical world both at home and abroad. Some time previous to this, he gave to the public a small work, in which be endeavoured to bring together, in a con densed form, the lemmas of Dania relative to the diseases of the urinary passage;; in the notes to this volume, we may perceive the germ of many of those views which were peculiar to Bichat.