Marie Francois Xavier BICHAT1771–1802

became its head five years later. It was during this period that his close association with Robert William Smith stimulated his interest in fractures and diseases of bone. After Smith’s death in 1873, Bennett succeeded his old chief as Professor of Surgery at Trinity College. He had a successful surgical practice that included the treatment of many patients with diseases and injuries of the bones. He performed osteotomies of the femur for ricketic deformities using Lister’s antiseptic technique, which he introduced into Dublin.

He was known as a great teacher and diagnos- tician and was active in the medical life of his community. Bennett’s first comment on fractures of the base of the first metacarpal was contained in a report to the Dublin Pathological Society in 1882.

He published two additional papers on the subject.

At a meeting of the surgical section of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland in May 1897, at which anatomic specimens, photo- graphs and casts of hands, and roentgenograms were demonstrated, it was proposed by Sir William Stokes that the fracture–dislocation of the base of the first metacarpal described by Bennett should bear his eponym.

There are three Irish surgeons whose names have been attached to fractures: Colles, Smith, and Bennett. Their lives spanned the nineteenth century and were curiously related; Smith per- formed the autopsy on Colles, and Bennett suc- ceeded Smith as Professor of Surgery at Trinity College, Dublin. These three surgeons shared a common interest in anatomy and both Smith and Bennett used the vast anatomic resources of the Dublin medical schools to provide the specimens that they used in their teaching. As cadavers were dissected, bones showing evidence of old frac- tures or disease were set aside and stored. It was from the examination of such collections that Bennett described the fracture that bears his eponym.

References

1. Bennett EH (1882) Fractures of the metacarpal bone. Dublin J Med Sci 73:72

2. Bennett EH (1885) Injuries of the skeleton: Value of the accumulation of specimens. Br Med J 2:199 3. Bennett EH (1886) On fracture of the metacarpal

bone of the thumb. Br Med J 2:12

4. Report of a Meeting of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland (1897) Section of Surgery, 14 May 1897. Br Med J 1:1481

Marie Francois Xavier BICHAT

1771–1802

Marie Francois Xavier Bichat of Paris, a practic- ing surgeon, contributed far more in his career than has generally been recognized outside of France and its medical facilities. With his impor- tant book, Traité des Membranes en Général et de Diverses Membranes en Particulier, published in Paris by Richard, Caille and Ravier in 1800, he established the science of histology and tissue pathology in Western Europe. Not until half a century later was this supplemented by books on cellular pathology by Goodsir and Virchow. The chapter on the synovial membranes is a classic in the fundamentals of orthopedic surgery. It is a long chapter describing the anatomy of the synovial membrane in each joint.

Paracelsus had used the term synovia applied to the fluid, and later Clopton Havers described what he termed synovial glands, i.e. the fatty villi that he interpreted to be glands producing the fluid. Bichat rejected Havers’ idea of glands, and recognized their function as fat pads separate from a specific synovial membrane. He believed synovia also covered the articulations and this belief was still somewhat in vogue as late as the 1930s. In this chapter, translated by J.B. Coffin, and published in Boston in 1813, Bichat employed the term exhale with an archaic meaning: “forcing through a membranous surface.” This interpretation is still found in Webster’s unabridged dictionary, and referred to as old medical terminology.

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Who’s Who in Orthopedics