Ten days after this, the French government caused his name, together with that of Desault, to be inscribed on a memorial plaque at the Hôtel-Dieu.

thumb|upright|Bichat's grave in the [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]]

Bichat was first buried at Sainte-Catherine Cemetery. With the closing of the latter, his remains were transferred to Père Lachaise Cemetery on 16 November 1845, followed by "a cortège of upwards of two thousand persons" after a funeral service at Notre-Dame.

Vitalist theory

Bichat is considered to have been a vitalist, though in no way an anti-experimentalist:

According to Russell C. Maulitz, "of the Montpellier vitalists, the clearest influence on Bichat was probably Théophile de Bordeu (1722–1776), whose widely disseminated writings on the vitalistic interpretation of life fell early into Bichat's hands." adding:

Legacy

100px|thumb|Title page of Anatomie générale

Bichat's main contribution to medicine and physiology was his perception that the diverse body of organs contain particular tissues or membranes, and he described 21 such membranes, including connective, muscle, and nerve tissue. He formed an important bridge between the organ pathology of Giovanni Battista Morgagni and the cell pathology of Rudolf Virchow. Bichat "recognized disease as a localized condition that began in specific tissues."

Michel Foucault regarded Bichat as the chief architect in developing the understanding of the human body as the origin of illness, redefining both conceptions of the body and disease. Bichat's figure was of great importance to Arthur Schopenhauer, who wrote of the Recherches physiologiques as "one of the most profoundly conceived works in the whole of French literature."

Honours

160px|thumbnail|right|Bichat's statue by [[David d'Angers at the historic École de Chirurgie in Paris]]

A large bronze statue of Bichat by David d'Angers was erected in 1857 in the cour d'honneur of the École de Chirurgie in Paris, with the support of members of the Medical Congress of France which was held in 1845. Bichat is also represented on the Panthéon's pediment,

<gallery mode=packed heights=160>

David d'Angers - Fronton du Panthéon - Bichat.jpg|Relief of Bichat on the pediment of the Panthéon

Statue Bichat Promenade Bastion Bourg Bresse 21.jpg|Statue by D'Angers in Bourg-en-Bresse

Portrait of Marie Francois Xavier Bichat (1771-1802) Wellcome M0011378.jpg|Portrait by Choquet

Marie François Xavier Bichat (1906) - Veloso Salgado.png|Detail from Veloso Salgado's Medicine Through the Ages, NOVA University Lisbon

Zaragoza - Antigua Facultad de Medicina - Medallón - Bichat.jpg|Bust at the University of Zaragoza College of Medicine

</gallery>

Notes

References

Sources

Further reading

  • Some places and memories related to Xavier Bichat
  • Physiological Researches upon Life and Death by Xavier Bichat (1809)