Bichat

Bichat, Marie Francois Xavier, physiologist, was born in 1771 at Thoirette, in the department of Ain, France. He removed in 1793 to Paris, where he became one of Desault's most brilliant pupils, and subsequently Desault's adopted son. At the same time he began to lecture, and in 1800 received the appointment of physician to the Hotel-Dieu, the year in which appeared his Recherches Physiologiques sur la Vie et la Mort, followed in the following year by his still more profound Anatomie Generale. Bichat's death, which occurred in 1802, when he was scarcely 31 years of age, was due to overwork. During his illness he was attended by Desault's widow, whom he had never left; and after his funeral his bust with Desault's was placed in the Hotel-Dieu by order of Napoleon.