Marie-Francois Xavier Bichat (1771-1802), French pathologist and founder of modern histology. Bichat worked at the Hotel-Dieu hospital in Paris. He noted that various organs consist of several components, or 'tissues', and set about documenting them. Eschewing the aid of a microscope, his observations were made during numerous post-mortems. His work had much influence on medical science, forming a link between the 'organ pathology' of Morgagni and the later 'cell pathology' of Virchow. Lithograph from 'Galerie medicale' (1825-1829), a collection of portraits by Pierre Roch Vigneron (1789-1872).