Marie François Xavier Bichat (; ; 14 November 1771 – 22 July 1802)
was a French
anatomist
Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...
and
pathologist
Pathology is the study of disease. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in the context of modern medical treatme ...
, known as the father of modern
histology
Histology,
also known as microscopic anatomy or microanatomy, is the branch of biology that studies the microscopic anatomy of biological tissue (biology), tissues. Histology is the microscopic counterpart to gross anatomy, which looks at large ...
. Although he worked without a
microscope
A microscope () is a laboratory equipment, laboratory instrument used to examine objects that are too small to be seen by the naked eye. Microscopy is the science of investigating small objects and structures using a microscope. Microscopic ...
, Bichat distinguished 21 types of elementary
tissues from which the organs of the human body are composed.
He was also "the first to propose that tissue is a central element in
human anatomy
Human anatomy (gr. ἀνατομία, "dissection", from ἀνά, "up", and Ï„Îμνειν, "cut") is primarily the scientific study of the morphology of the human body. Anatomy is subdivided into gross anatomy and microscopic anatomy. Gross ...
, and he considered
organ
Organ and organs may refer to:
Biology
* Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function
* Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body.
Musical instruments
...
s as collections of often disparate tissues, rather than as entities in themselves".
The
buccal fat pad (also called Bichat’s fat pad) was named after him.
Although Bichat was "hardly known outside the French medical world" at the time of his early death, forty years later "his system of histology and
pathological anatomy
Anatomical pathology (''Commonwealth'') or anatomic pathology (''U.S.'') is a medical specialty that is concerned with the diagnosis of disease based on the gross examination, macroscopic, Histopathology, microscopic, biochemical, immu ...
had taken both the French and English medical worlds by storm."
The Bichatian tissue theory was "largely instrumental in the rise to prominence of hospital doctors" as opposed to
empiric therapy, as "diseases were now defined in terms of specific
lesion
A lesion is any damage or abnormal change in the tissue of an organism, usually caused by injury or diseases. The term ''Lesion'' is derived from the Latin meaning "injury". Lesions may occur in both plants and animals.
Types
There is no de ...
s in various tissues, and this lent itself to a classification and a list of
diagnoses".
Early life and training
Bichat was born in
Thoirette,
Franche-Comté
Franche-Comté (, ; ; Frainc-Comtou dialect, Frainc-Comtou: ''Fraintche-Comtè''; ; also ; ; all ) is a cultural and Provinces of France, historical region of eastern France. It is composed of the modern departments of France, departments of Doub ...
.
His father was Jean-Baptiste Bichat, a
physician
A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...
who had trained in
Montpellier
Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...
and was Bichat's first instructor.
His mother was Jeanne-Rose Bichat, his father's wife and cousin. He was the eldest of four children.
He entered the college of
Nantua, and later studied at
Lyon
Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
.
He made rapid progress in
mathematics
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
and the
physical sciences
Physical science is a branch of natural science that studies non-living systems, in contrast to life science. It in turn has many branches, each referred to as a "physical science", together is called the "physical sciences".
Definition
...
, but ultimately devoted himself to the study of
anatomy
Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...
and
surgery
Surgery is a medical specialty that uses manual and instrumental techniques to diagnose or treat pathological conditions (e.g., trauma, disease, injury, malignancy), to alter bodily functions (e.g., malabsorption created by bariatric surgery s ...
under the guidance of Marc-Antoine Petit (1766–1811), chief surgeon at the
Hôtel-Dieu In French-speaking countries, a hôtel-Dieu () was originally a hospital for the poor and needy, run by the Catholic Church. Nowadays these buildings or institutions have either kept their function as a hospital, the one in Paris being the oldest an ...
of Lyon.
At the beginning of September 1793, Bichat was designated to serve as a surgeon with the
Army of the Alps in the service of the surgeon Buget at the hospital of
Bourg.
He went home in March 1794,
then moved to
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, where he became a pupil of
Pierre-Joseph Desault at the
Hôtel-Dieu In French-speaking countries, a hôtel-Dieu () was originally a hospital for the poor and needy, run by the Catholic Church. Nowadays these buildings or institutions have either kept their function as a hospital, the one in Paris being the oldest an ...
, "who was so strongly impressed with his genius that he took him into his house and treated him as his adopted son."
He took active part in Desault's work, at the same time pursuing his own research in anatomy and physiology.
The sudden death of Desault in 1795 was a severe blow to Bichat.
His first task was to discharge the obligations he owed his benefactor by contributing to the support of his widow and her son and by completing the fourth volume of Desault's ''Journal de Chirurgie'', which was published the following year.
In 1796, he and several other colleagues also formally founded the Société Médicale d'Émulation, which provided an intellectual platform for debating problems in medicine.
Lecturing and research
In 1797, Bichat began a course of anatomical demonstrations, and his success encouraged him to extend the plan of his lectures, and boldly to announce a course of operative
surgery
Surgery is a medical specialty that uses manual and instrumental techniques to diagnose or treat pathological conditions (e.g., trauma, disease, injury, malignancy), to alter bodily functions (e.g., malabsorption created by bariatric surgery s ...
.
At the same time, he was working to reunite and digest in one body the surgical doctrines which Desault had published in various periodical works;
of these he composed ''Œuvres chirurgicales de Desault, ou tableau de sa doctrine, et de sa pratique dans le traitement des maladies externes'' (1798–1799), a work 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 1798, he gave in addition a separate course of physiology.
A dangerous attack of
haemoptysis interrupted his labors for a time; but the danger was no sooner past than he plunged into new engagements with the same ardour as before.
Bichat's next book, ''Traité des membranes'' (''Treatise on Membranes''), included his doctrine of tissue pathology with a distinction of 21 different tissues.
As worded by A. S. Weber,
His next publication was the ''Recherches physiologiques sur la vie et la mort'' (''Physiological Researches upon Life and Death'', 1800), and it was quickly followed by his ''Anatomie générale'' (1801) in four volumes, the work which contains the fruits of his most profound and original researches.
He began another work, under the title ''Anatomie descriptive'' (1801–1803), in which the organs were arranged according to his peculiar classification of their functions but lived to publish only the first two volumes.
Final years and death
In 1800, Bichat was appointed physician to the Hôtel-Dieu. "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 above six hundred bodies. He was anxious also to determine with more precision than had been attempted before, the effects of remedial agents, and instituted with this view a series of direct experiments which yielded a vast store of valuable material. Towards the end of his life he was also engaged on a new classification of diseases.
"

On 8 July 1802, Bichat fell in a faint while descending a set of stairs at the Hôtel-Dieu.
He had been spending considerable time examining some macerated skin, "and from which, of course, putrid emanations were being sent forth", during which he probably contracted
typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known simply as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella enterica'' serotype Typhi bacteria, also called ''Salmonella'' Typhi. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often th ...
;
"the next day he complained of a violent headache; that night,
leech
Leeches are segmented parasitism, parasitic or Predation, predatory worms that comprise the Class (biology), subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida. They are closely related to the Oligochaeta, oligochaetes, which include the earthwor ...
es were applied behind his ears; on the 10th, he took an
emetic
Vomiting (also known as emesis, puking and throwing up) is the forceful expulsion of the contents of one's stomach through the mouth and sometimes the nose.
Vomiting can be the result of ailments like food poisoning, gastroenteritis, preg ...
; on the 15th, he passed into a
coma
A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to Nociception, respond normally to Pain, painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal Circadian rhythm, sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate ...
and became convulsive."
Bichat died on 22 July, aged 30.
Jean-Nicolas Corvisart wrote to the first consul
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
:
Ten days after this, the French government caused his name, together with that of Desault, to be inscribed on a memorial plaque at the Hôtel-Dieu.

Bichat was first buried at Sainte-Catherine Cemetery. With the closing of the latter, his remains were transferred to
Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery (, , formerly , ) is the largest cemetery in Paris, France, at . With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world.
Buried at Père Lachaise are many famous figures in the ...
on 16 November 1845, followed by "a cortège of upwards of two thousand persons" after a funeral service at
Notre-Dame.
Vitalist theory
Bichat is considered to have been a
vitalist
Vitalism is a belief that starts from the premise that "living organisms are fundamentally different from non-living entities because they contain some non-physical element or are governed by different principles than are inanimate things." Wher ...
, though in no way an anti-experimentalist:
According to Russell C. Maulitz, "of the Montpellier vitalists, the clearest influence on Bichat was probably
Théophile de Bordeu (1722–1776), whose widely disseminated writings on the vitalistic interpretation of life fell early into Bichat's hands."

In his ''Physiological Researches upon Life and Death'' (1800), Bichat defined ''life'' as "the totality of those set of functions which resist death",
adding:
Bichat thought that animals exhibited vital properties which could not be explained through physics or chemistry.
In his ''Physiological Researches'', he considered life to be separable into two parts: the organic life (""; also sometimes called the vegetative system
) and the animal life ("", or animal system
). The organic life was "the life of the heart, intestines, and the other inner organs."
As worded by Stanley Finger, "Bichat theorized that this life was regulated through the ''système des ganglions'' (the ganglionic nervous system), a collection of small independent 'brains' in the chest cavity."
In contrast, animal life "involved symmetrical, harmonious organs, such as the eyes, ears, and limbs. It included habit and memory, and was ruled by the wit and the intellect. This was the function of the brain itself, but it could not exist without the heart, the center of the organic life."
According to A. S. Weber,
Legacy
Bichat's main contribution to medicine and physiology was his perception that the diverse body of organs contain particular tissues or ''membranes'', and he described 21 such membranes, including connective, muscle, and nerve tissue.
As he explained in ''Anatomie générale'',
Bichat did not use a microscope because he distrusted it; therefore his analyses did not include any acknowledgement of cellular structure.
Nonetheless, he formed an important bridge between the ''organ pathology'' of
Giovanni Battista Morgagni
Giovanni Battista Morgagni (25 February 1682 – 6 December 1771) was an Italian anatomy, anatomist, generally regarded as the father of modern anatomical pathology, who taught thousands of medical students from many countries during his 56 year ...
and the ''cell pathology'' of
Rudolf Virchow
Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow ( ; ; 13 October 18215 September 1902) was a German physician, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist, writer, editor, and politician. He is known as "the father of modern pathology" and as the founder o ...
. Bichat "recognized
disease
A disease is a particular abnormal condition that adversely affects the structure or function (biology), function of all or part of an organism and is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical condi ...
as a localized condition that began in specific tissues."
Michel Foucault
Paul-Michel Foucault ( , ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French History of ideas, historian of ideas and Philosophy, philosopher who was also an author, Literary criticism, literary critic, Activism, political activist, and teacher. Fo ...
regarded Bichat as the chief architect in developing the understanding of the human body as the origin of illness, redefining both conceptions of the body and disease. Bichat's figure was of great importance to
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer ( ; ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the Phenomenon, phenomenal world as ...
, who wrote of the ''Recherches physiologiques'' as "one of the most profoundly conceived works in the whole of French literature."
Honours
A large bronze statue of Bichat by
David d'Angers was erected in 1857 in the ''cour d'honneur'' of the
École de Chirurgie
École or Ecole may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* Éco ...
in Paris, with the support of members of the Medical Congress of France which was held in 1845. Bichat is also represented on the
Panthéon
The Panthéon (, ), is a monument in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It stands in the Latin Quarter, Paris, Latin Quarter (Quartier latin), atop the , in the centre of the , which was named after it. The edifice was built between 1758 ...
's pediment,
of which the bas-relief is D'Angers' work as well. The name of Bichat is one of the
72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower. His name was given to the
Bichat–Claude Bernard Hospital.
George Eliot
Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...
enthusiastically recounted Bichat's career in her 1872 novel ''
Middlemarch
''Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life'' is a novel by English author George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Ann Evans. It appeared in eight installments (volumes) in 1871 and 1872. Set in Middlemarch, a fictional English Midlands town, in 1829 ...
''. In ''
Madame Bovary
''Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners'' (; ), commonly known as simply ''Madame Bovary'', is the début novel by France, French writer Gustave Flaubert, originally published in 1856 and 1857. The eponymous character, Emma Bovary, lives beyond he ...
'' (1856),
Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert ( , ; ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realis ...
, himself the son of a prominent surgeon, wrote of a physician character who "belonged to the great school of surgery that sprang up around Bichat, to that generation, now extinct, of philosopher-practitioners who, cherishing their art with fanatical passion, exercised it with exaltation and sagacity."
Gallery
David d'Angers - Fronton du Panthéon - Bichat.jpg, Relief of Bichat on the pediment of the Panthéon
The Panthéon (, ), is a monument in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It stands in the Latin Quarter, Paris, Latin Quarter (Quartier latin), atop the , in the centre of the , which was named after it. The edifice was built between 1758 ...
Statue Bichat Promenade Bastion Bourg Bresse 21.jpg, Statue by D'Angers in Bourg-en-Bresse
Bourg-en-Bresse (; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Ain department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. Located northeast of Lyon, it is the capital of the ancient Provinces of France, province of Bresse (). I ...
Portrait of Marie Francois Xavier Bichat (1771-1802) Wellcome M0011378.jpg, Portrait by Choquet
Marie François Xavier Bichat (1906) - Veloso Salgado.png, Detail from Veloso Salgado's ''Medicine Through the Ages'', NOVA University Lisbon
Zaragoza - Antigua Facultad de Medicina - Medallón - Bichat.jpg, Bust at the University of Zaragoza
The University of Zaragoza, sometimes referred to as Saragossa University () is a public university with teaching campuses and research centres spread over the three provinces of Aragon (Spain).
Founded in 1542, it is one of the List of oldest u ...
College of Medicine
Notes
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Some places and memories related to Xavier Bichat''Physiological Researches upon Life and Death'' by Xavier Bichat(1809)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bichat, Xavier
1771 births
1802 deaths
People from Jura (department)
French physiologists
French anatomists
French pathologists
Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery
18th-century French writers
18th-century French male writers
19th-century French writers
Vitalists