Xavier Bichat
| Marie François Xavier Bichat | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
14 November 1771 Thoirette |
| Died | 22 July 1802 (aged 30) Paris |
| Nationality | French |
| Fields |
Anatomy Physiology |
| Known for |
Histology Tissues |
| Influences | Laura Bassi |
Marie François Xavier Bichat (14 November 1771 – 22 July 1802) was a French anatomist and pathologist; he is known as the father of histology. Although working without the microscope, Bichat distinguished 21 types of elementary tissues from which the organs of human body are composed.
Bichat was born at Thoirette in Jura, France. His father was Jean-Baptise Bichat, a physician who had trained at Montpellier and was Bichat's first instructor. His mother was Jeanne-Rose Bichat, his father's wife and cousin. He entered the college of Nantua, and later studied at Lyon. He made rapid progress in mathematics and the physical sciences, but ultimately devoted himself to the study of anatomy and surgery under the guidance of Marc-Antoine Petit (1766–1811), chief surgeon to the Hotel-Dieu at Lyon.
The revolutionary disturbances compelled him to flee from Lyon and take refuge in Paris in 1793. There he became a pupil of P. J. Desault, who was so impressed with his genius that he took him into his house and treated him as his adopted son. For two years he took active part in Desault's work, at the same time pursuing his own research in anatomy and physiology. Desault passed in 1795.
At age 29 he was appointed as the chief physician to the Hotel-Dieu. In 1796, he and several other colleagues formally founded the Société d'Emulation de Paris, which provided an intellectual platform for debating problems in medicine. He died at age 30, fourteen days after falling down a set of stairs at Hotel-Dieu and acquiring a fever. He is buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery.
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