fiTIENNE GEOFFROT SAINT-RILAIRE. 405 



only a few quadrupeds in the national collection. My duty was to try 

 to increase the number. I entered into correspondence with the prin- 

 cipal naturalists, I was powerfully seconded by their zeal, and the col- 

 lection of viviparous quadrupeds or mammals is now the richest of 

 that class in existence. I have likewise greatly enriched the collection 

 of birds. Finally, I have made the collections useful to young natu- 

 ralists by making rigorous determinations of the animals intrusted to 

 my administration." 



The course was opened in May, 1794, and in the following Decem- 

 ber Geoffroy read to the Society of Natural History an essay on the 

 aye-aye, in the introduction to which, criticising the views of Bonnet 

 on the scale of beings, he attacked a theory that was but slightly dif- 

 ferent from the one which he himself afterward adopted. 



In 1795 the Abbe Tessier had found in Normandy a youth who 

 was strongly interested in natural history, and gave an account of him 

 to Geoffroy, to which the young man added a communication describ- 

 ing some of his researches. Geoffroy wrote back to the youth : " Come 

 to Paris without delay ; come, assume the place of another Linnaeus, 

 and become another founder of natural history." The youth came, 

 and thus was opened the career of the illustrious Georges Cuvier. He 

 and Geoffroy became fast friends, and together composed five mem- 

 oirs, of which one, on the classification of mammalia, contained the 

 theory of the subordination of characters, fundamental to Cuvier's 

 system. In a memoir on the Makis, or Madagascar monkeys, pub- 

 lished a year afterward by Geoffroy alone, appears the principle of 

 unity of composition, to which the author afterward related all com- 

 parative anatomy. The minds of the two friends had already begun 

 to diverge toward opposite systems. 



In 1798 Cuvier and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire were invited to accompa- 

 ny Bonaparte on his expedition to Egypt. Cuvier declined, Geoffroy 

 went. There he was one of the members of the scientific commission 

 that explored the Delta, and of the Commission of Seven for the or- 

 ganization of the Institute of Egypt, which distinguished itself by its 

 archaeological labors. He made in succession journeys through the 

 Delta, to Upper Egypt, and to the Red Sea. After his return from 

 the Cataracts, at the end of 1799, he established himself at Suez, and 

 began a collection of the fishes of the Red Sea. 



On the evacuation of Egypt by the French, the scientific party 

 were confined to Alexandria, where, amid all the perils of the siege, 

 Geoffroy continued his scientific investigations and his examinations of 

 the electrical fishes of the Nile. When the city was given up, no res- 

 ervation was made of the collections, but Geoffroy managed to save 

 them. General Hutchinson demanded a strict execution of the terms 

 of surrender, and sent Hamilton to enforce them upon Geoffroy's 

 treasures. " No," said Geoffroy, " we shall not obey the orders ; your 

 army can not get in here for two days : we will take that time to burn 



