Bichat / [William Sydney Thayer].

  • Thayer, William Sydney, 1864-1932.
Date:
[1903]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Bichat / [William Sydney Thayer]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to Paris to continue his studies which were to fit him for the position of surgeon in the army. Arriving in Paris without friends or letters of introduction he devoted himself especially to the clinic of the celebrated surgeon Desault, to whose atten¬ tion he was brought soon after his arrival, through circum¬ stances happily related by Buisson.3 “ It was an established custom in the school of Desault that certain chosen pupils should undertake to collect in turn the public lesson and pre¬ pare an extract. This extract was read after the lesson of the following day; and these exercises, presided over by the associate surgeon, had the double advantage of bringing a sec¬ ond time before the pupils the useful precepts which they should absorb, and of making up for the sufficiently common inattention of the masses during the first lesson. One day when Desault had spoken for a long time on a fracture of the clavicle, and had demonstrated the utility of his bandage, ap¬ plying it at the same time to a patient, the pupil whose duty it was to collect these details happened to be absent. Bichat offered to take his place. The reading of his extract caused a real sensation. The purity of bis style, the precision and clearness of his ideas, the scrupulous exactness of his resume were characteristic rather of the professor than the pupil. He was heard with extraordinary attention and left showered with praise and repeated applause.” When informed of the incident by his associate Manoury, Desault straightway sought the acquaintance of this promising disciple, in whom he soon recognized a man of genius. The master not only opened 3 Buisson: De la division la plus naturelle des plienomenes physiolo- giques considdree chez l’homme, avec un precis historique sur M. F. X. Bichat. 844 pp., 8°, Paris, Brosson, an. x (1802), p. 326. his house to the pupil, but practically adopted him as a son, and throughout the remaining years of his life Bichat was associated with all the work of his teacher. This was the turning point in his life. His association with Desault opened to him the opportunity for a scientific career to which his whole energy was afterwards devoted. In 1795 Desault died. Though a great sorrow to Bichat, the death of his master and benefactor in no way interrupted his career. He continued to live with Desault’s widow who thenceforth regarded him as a son. From the death of- Desault, Bichat gave himself up to a career of unremitting activity such as has rarely been equaled. In the very year of Desault’s death he published his journal with an historical notice of his life and letters, and later edited his surgical works. But his main energies were devoted to the study of anatomy. The knowledge of anatomy he found in a condition which may justly be called chaotic. As one biog¬ rapher has said,4 “ The general anatomy of man was un¬ known.” Much that was taught consisted of a mass of hypo¬ thetical or dogmatic statements which had been handed down from master to pupil for ages. In the words of Husson,5 6 “ Up to that time bristling with scholastic minutiae, anatomy re¬ pelled too often by its dryness the young who were destined to the study of the healing art. We cannot even to-day ” [the year of Bichat’s death] “ recall without a sensation of pain all those multiple divisions, those fatiguing descriptions, that conventional and often incomprehensible language which con¬ stituted then the science of anatomy. Bichat was the first to leave the common path; he presented anatomy in a new point of view; studied the general organization of man in the simple tissues of which he is composed, divided the living economy into various systems, and by accumulating facts, by bringing observation to bear on experience, he broadened the limits of science anrl built for himself a monument which brings him lasting renown.” Bichat’s great work consisted in the in¬ troduction into anatomy and physiology of methods of accu¬ rate, systematic observation and experiment, methods similar to those which distinguished the later clinical schools of Laennec, Louis, and the physiological studies of Claude Ber¬ nard. “Anatomy,” said he one day to his colleagues, “ is not as they teach it to us, and physiology is a science to be made over again.” 0 Bichat devoted himself literally day and night to his studies, and unmoved by the stirring and distracting incidents of this turbulent period, lived among his cadavers, writing the protocols of his observations and experiments in the small hours of the night. He soon gathered about him enthusiastic pupils and friends to whom in 1797 he gave his first course in anatomy. “ From this moment,” says Le- vacher,7 “ one must measure his success by his productions, and his years by his successes.” 4 Knox : Lancet, Lond., 1854, ii, 393. 5 Notice liistorique sur la vie et les travaux de Marie-Fr.-Xav.-Bichat, in Traite des membranes &c. par X. Bichat. Nouvelle edition augmen- tee d’une notice &c. par M. Husson., Par., 8°, Ann. xi, 1802. 6Pariset: Discours a 1’inauguration de la statue de Bichat a Bourg. Gaz. mcd. de Par., 1843, 2 s., xi, Ann. xiv, 566. 7Loc. cit.