4 o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The division spread and extended to all countries where any thought 

 was given to the subjects under debate. Geoffroy was highly ap- 

 plauded by Goethe, who declared the discussion a very important one 

 for science, and made it the subject of the last lines he ever wrote. 

 The controversy was resumed in 1832, and terminated only with the 

 death of Cuvier. Geoffroy sometimes appeared overcome by the 

 ability and brilliancy of his antagonist, but he never gave up, and 

 time has rendered its verdict that, on the essential points, he was not 

 in the wrong. 



The Revolution of July occurred in the midst of the discussions in 

 the Academy, and Geoffroy, who sympathized with the popular move- 

 ment, again distinguished himself, as he had done in the previous 

 Revolution, by an act of hospitality to the clergy, in giving shelter to 

 the Archbishop of Paris, who was in danger of violence. 



When Cuvier died, every one hastened to sound the praises of 

 the genius of the great anatomist. Geoffroy ventured upon a criticism 

 of his views on fossil remains and regarding the revolutions of the 

 globe, and was accused of attacking the fame of his late antagonist. 

 Deeply wounded at so unjust an imputation, he gave up the work that 

 had provoked it, saying : " It would perhaps be best to have courage 

 or wisdom enough to pay no attention to such objections. But the 

 question now concerns one of the glories of France, the first zoologist 

 of our age. It is for posterity, if it deigns to concern itself with the 

 strifes of this period, to do justice to my adversaries and myself." 

 He was stricken with blindness in July, 1840, and with paralysis a few 

 months afterward. He endured the infirmities of old age with great 

 resignation, and preserved to the last the serenity of a good man and 

 a great mind or, as Edgar Quinet remarks of him, " he approached 

 unveiled truth with a cheerful face, and descended without fear into 

 eternal knowledge." 



The list of the works of Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire would be a very 

 full one if all were included. Besides the larger works which he com- 

 posed, or in the composition of which he was associated, the catalogue 

 of the principal only of the papers he presented to learned societies 

 occupies a full page in the " Biographie Generale." His most im- 

 portant publications are the " Philosophic Anatomique " (2 vols., 1818- 

 1820), which contains the exposition of his theory ; " Principles de la 

 Philosophic Zoologique " (" Principles of Zoological Philosophy," 

 1830), which gives a synopsis of his discussions with Cuvier ; " Etudes 

 Progressives d'un Naturalist " (" Progressive Studies of a Naturalist," 

 1835) ; " Notions de Philosophic Naturelle " (" Ideas of Natural Phi- 

 losophy," 1835) ; and, in conjunction with Frederic Cuvier, " Histoire 

 Naturel des Mammiferes," ("Natural History of Mammals," 3 vols., 

 1820-1842). Among the best works about him are the " Life," by his 

 son Isidore ; the " Eulogy," by M. Flourens ; and a sketch in the ap- 

 pendix to De Quatrefages's " Rambles of a Naturalist." 



