Histology, from the Greek word histos, cloth or woven material, and logos, study.

The father of modern histology and pathology is Marie F.X. Bichat, the brilliant French anatomist and physiologist. Although he characterized 21 different tissue types, most never described before, he chose to work sans microscope.

Bichat was one of the first to postulate that disease struck at the tissue and not the organ level of organization. He died of tuberculosis in 1802, just 31 years old, and is one of only 72 French scientists, engineers, or mathematicians to have his name engraved on the Eiffel Tower.

The word histology was coined in 1819 by one A. Mayer, a German anatomist, perhaps inspired by Bichat's naked-eye characterizations of various tissues as akin to cloth ("le tissu" in French); as noted above, the Greek word for cloth is histos.

Marie François Xavier Bichat 1771-1802 The father of modern histology and pathology clendening.kumc.edu