Physiological researches on life and death / translated from the French, by F. Gold.

  • Xavier Bichat
Date:
[1815]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Physiological researches on life and death / translated from the French, by F. Gold. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    course of anatomy, and had the satisfaction of seeing Lis rooms immediately frequented by more than ' eighty pupils, Scarcely can it be conceived in what way a single man could have been capable of the multifarious labours of Bichat during this winter. The extreme difficulty of procuring subjects for dissection obliged him to .extraordinary fatigues, and these united with liis public lectures, would have wholly absorbed the time of another man. Notwithstanding which, he was usually present at the demonstrations given in his theatre, though possessed of the most zealous cor operators in the persons of his professional brethren Hai and Rosiere. He dissected for his public lectures himself, continued his experiments on living animals, and when in the evening he returned to his home overwhelmed with lassitude and exertion of mind, his custom was, instead of betajcing himself to repose, to pass the greater part of his nights in putting in order the surgical works qf Desault, a last tribute to the memory of his respected frierjd. At the time of w hich I am speaking, Bichat con- ceived the project of throwing new light upon phy- siology. rf his science was the especial object of many c-f his lectures, but as yet he had presented only some few views of it. Anatomy was his almost exclusive occupation. He thought, and with reason, that for entering will] success upon tjie study of the functions, jt was necessary in the first place to acquire a perfect knowledge of the organs. Jlis views were principally directed*to the membranous system, a system till then r,eglected by anatomists; his discqvery of the synovial i]iembrane$ conducted him to a careful examination pf all the others, and these, though they had been all pbseryed in particular as forming a part of such or ( such.