CHAPTER II 



CU VIER 



GEORGES Leopold Chretien Frederic Dagobert Cuvier was born in 

 1769 at Montbeliard, a small town not far from Basel, which, al- 

 «• though entirely French, belonged at that time to the Duchy of 

 Wiirttemberg. He came from a French Huguenot family, which had at one 

 time sought refuge from religious persecution at home; his father, however, 

 had been an officer in French service, but in his old age had returned to his 

 native town, where he married and lived on a small pension given him by 

 the French Government. At an early age young Georges displayed brilliant 

 intellectual gifts; he passed through the local school with honours and dur- 

 ing his time there became acquainted with BufFon's writings, which he 

 diligently studied. The poverty of his family, however, threatened to pre- 

 vent him from continuing his education, when a chance opportunity procured 

 him free entry into the Karlsschule at Stuttgart. This one-time famous edu- 

 cational establishment was originally a military academy, but had been ex- 

 tended by the reigning Duke Karl into a college providing for the training 

 of Civil Service officials as well. The school was renowned for its excellent 

 staff of teachers and at the same time feared for the severe military discipline 

 exercised there under the personal supervision of the despotic Prince. Schil- 

 ler, the German poet of liberty, had been one of its first pupils, but had 

 escaped from the insufferable constraint by flight, and others had followed 

 his example. Cuvier, on the other hand, who was not only naturally gifted, 

 but also possessed a sense of discipline, got on well there; although upon 

 first entering the academy he had no knowledge of German, he soon became 

 one of the best pupils in the class for the science of State finances, which 

 he entered because natural science was most widely taught there for the bene- 

 fit of aspiring argicultural and forestry employees. The teacher of biology 

 here was Karl Friedrich Kielmayer (1765-1844), one of the most extraor- 

 dinary of German biologists, afterwards professor at Tubingen, a man who 

 allowed none of the courses of lectures that he gave during a long life to 

 be printed, though they were highly thought of, copies of them being made 

 and eagerly studied. He appears to have been a speculative natural scientist, 

 who had been influenced by Herder's ideas of a common primal type for all 

 living creatures and their several organs, and who consequently strongly 

 recommended the study of comparative anatomy. Cuvier received a thorough 



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