Bichat, Marie François Xavier (1771-1802)

French physician and founder of histology, the study of tissues. He studied the organs of the body, their structure, and the ways in which they are affected by disease.

This led to his discovery and naming of ‘tissue’, a basic biological and medical concept; he identified 21 types. He argued that disease does not affect the whole organ but only certain of its constituent tissues.

Bichat was born in the Jura region. His medical studies were interrupted by military service in the French Revolution. From 1801 he was physician at the Hôtel-Dieu hospital for the poor in Paris. He distrusted the microscope and made little use of it; his analysis of tissues consequently did not include any understanding of their cellular structure.