Of the successors of Cuvier, we would designate Meckel, Owen, Gegenbaur, and Cope as the greatest.
Comparative anatomy is a very rich subject, and when elucidated by embryology, is one of the firm foundations of biology. If we regard anatomy as a science of statics, we recognize that it should be united with physiology, which represents the dynamical side of life. Comparative anatomy and comparative physiology should go hand in hand in the attempt to interpret living forms. Advances in these two subjects embrace nearly all our knowledge of living organisms. It is a cause for congratulation that comparative anatomy has now become experimental, and that gratifying progress is being made along the line of research designated as experimental morphology. Already valuable results have been attained in this field, and the outlook of experimental morphology is most promising.
BICHAT AND THE BIRTH OF HISTOLOGY
We must recognize Bichat as one of the foremost men in biological history, although his name is not well known to the general public, nor constantly referred to by biologists as that of one of the chief luminaries of their science. In him was combined extraordinary talent with powers of intense and prolonged application; a combination which has always produced notable results in the world. He died at the age of thirty-one, but, within a productive period of not more than seven years, he made observations and published work that created an epoch and made a lasting impression on biological history.
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."