Marie François Xavier Bichat (November 14, 1771 – July 22, 1802)

Marie François Xavier Bichat was a French anatomist and physiologist. He is best remembered as the father of modern histology. He also sometimes called ‘the father of descriptive anatomy.’

Bichat revolutionized medical theory. He contributed far more in his career than has generally been recognized outside of France and its medical facilities.

He began formal medical studies in 1791 at Lyons. In 1793 he moved to Paris, where his career was associated with the great hospital the Hotel-Dieu.

Bichat’s main interest lay in the theoretical yield of anatomical observation. He performed a great number of autopsies, opening as many as 600 corpses in a year.

Bichat’s central theoretical innovation, set forth in his 1800 Treatise on Membranes, was the substitution of the membrane or tissue for the organ as the fundamental unit in the analysis of health and disease. He established the science of histology and tissue pathology in Western Europe.

Bichat insisted that diseases could not be corrected identified as disease of specific organs but as diseases of specific tissues.

Bichat correctly distinguished the heart’s muscle tissue (the myocardium) from the membranous tissues enclosing it (the pericardium), and from the tissue lining the chambers (the endocardium).

Each of these three tissues can be attacked by disease leading to three different conditions.
Marie François Xavier Bichat (November 14, 1771 – July 22, 1802)