Marie-François-Xavier Bichat (Fig.
1) was born in 1771, the year that Morgagni died, as the son of a physician. He studied in Nantua and Lyon where he devoted himself also to mathematics and physical sciences, but he finally chose for medicine especially anatomy and surgery. Here he was discovered by the famous surgeon Marc-Antoine Petit, head of surgery at the Hotel Dieu in that city. In 1793 he went to Paris were he came under the supervision of P.J. Desault.
