Abstract

PEREZ PERALES, Jaime Eduardo. Marie-François Xavier Bichat and the birth of the anatomoclinical method. Cir. gen [online]. 2011, vol.33, n.1, pp.54-57. ISSN 1405-0099.

Objective: To know the great contribution made by Bichat as a pioneer of the anatomoclinical methods, by considering the anatomical lesion as the foundation of the clinical knowledge, it was possible to make the transition from medicine to a truly scientific discipline. Starting with Bichat, the foundation of disease stops being distant and abstract and becomes a very concrete concept. Design: Historical assay (10 references). Result: Bichat was the first to introduce the notion of tissues as distinct entities, approaching their study from a purely sensorial point of view, leading to the fall of the fibrilarist theory in force since the XVI century. He was able to identify, describe, and classify 21 tissues, which he pointed out as elemental structures of the diverse organs. According to the concept of ''general anatomy'', Bichat considered organs as structures formed by several tissues that could become diseased independently (since they were the site of the morbid process) and not as an indivisible whole. Bichat saw the tissue as a continuous and fundamental structure of the whole organism and addressed his attention to it and not toward the isolated organs, as had been indicated by Giovanni Batista Morgagni. Conclusion: Thanks to the advances achieved by the anatomoclinical methods, French medicine became the leader of worldwide medicine at the beginning of the XIX century and was able to keep that place for at least one century.

Keywords : History of medicine; biographies; Bichat.

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