His researches supplemented those of Cuvier, and carried the analysis of animal organization to a deeper level. Cuvier laid the foundations of comparative anatomy by dissecting and arranging in a comprehensive system the organs of animals, but Bichat went a step further and made a profound study of the tissues that unite to make up the organs. As we have already noted in a previous chapter, this was a step in reaching the conception of the real organization of living beings. Buckle's Estimate of Bichat.--It is interesting to note the impression made by Bichat upon one of the greatest students of the history of civilization. Buckle says of him: "Great, however, as is the name of Cuvier, a greater still remains behind. I allude, of course, to Bichat, whose reputation is steadily advancing as our knowledge advances; who, if we compare the shortness of his life with the reach and depth of his views, must be pronounced the most profound thinker and consummate observer by whom the organization of the animal frame has yet been studied. "We may except Aristotle, but between Aristotle and Bichat I find no middle man." Whether or not we agree fully with this panegyric of Buckle, we must, I think, place Bichat among the most illustrious men of biological history, as Vesalius, J. Müller, Von Baer, and Balfour. Marie François Xavier Bichat was born in 1771 at Thoirette, department of the Ain. His father, who was a physician, directed the early education of his son and had the satisfaction of seeing him take kindly to intellectual pursuits. The young student was distinguished in Latin and mathematics, and showed early a fondness for natural history. Having elected to follow the calling of his father, he went to Lyons to study medicine, and came under the instruction of Petit in surgery. Bichat in Paris.--It was, on the whole, a fortunate circumstance for Bichat that the turbulent events of the French Revolution drove him from Lyons to Paris, where he could have the best training, the greatest stimulus for his growth, and at the same time the widest field for the exercise of his talents. We find him in Paris in 1793, studying under the great surgeon Desault.