334 THE HISTORY OF BIOLOGY 



the same judgment has been expressed concerning another of the great pio- 

 neers whom France has given to scientific research — Lavoisier.^ This abil- 

 ity to create new scientific values by way of method seems to be inherent 

 in the French nation, with its keen and critical faculty. 



The new method that Cuvier thus introduced was comparative anatomy 

 in the modern sense of the term. True, as he himself admits, he was not with- 

 out precursors — the two collaborators BufFon and Daubenton, and also 

 Camper, Vicq d'Azyr, and Blumenbach, had made weighty contributions 

 to the branch of science in question. But Cuvier's great contribution is his 

 consistent and far-reaching application of the comparative method, whereby 

 he actually created an entirely new view of the connexion of causes in nature, 

 in respect of both the construction of the separate individual and the mutual 

 relation of the various animal forms. In this sphere he has perhaps learnt 

 most from Aristotle, whom he resembled in his power of discovering and 

 comparing formal qualities of fundamental importance for the conception 

 of life in nature. 



In his first more important work, the above-mentioned Lecons sur V anato- 

 mic corn-park, which came out in the years 1 799-1 805, Cuvier still to a certain 

 extent holds to the old point of view, the influence of his predecessors, chiefly 

 Daubenton and Vicq d'Azyr, being clearly apparent. But what at once strikes 

 one on reading this work of Cuvier's youth is the clarity and soberness of 

 thought that dominate his whole conception, particularly in the purely theo- 

 retical problems. All speculation upon the innermost essence of existence 

 is carefully avoided; he frankly acknowledges the powerlessness of the human 

 capacity for thought in this sphere and the worthlessness of those systems 

 of thought that earlier and contemporary natural philosophy had created 

 in order to fill the gaps in our knowledge of nature. In this Cuvier stands 

 out in sharp contrast to such scientists as Buffon, Bonnet, and Lamarck, to 

 say nothing of the German natural philosophers of his age. This tendency 

 to criticism was undoubtedly innate in Cuvier; it was certainly stimulated 

 by the study of Kant, whom he quotes in one place, just as, on the whole, 

 his acquaintance, initiated in Stuttgart, with the German world of thought 

 contributed towards broadening his field of vision beyond what was cus- 

 tomary in his countrymen at that time. The consideration of the problem 

 of life with which the work referred to starts is thus introduced by the em- 

 phatic declaration that life in its innermost essence is and must remain a 

 riddle: "a word that the untrained mind is ready to regard as an expression 

 for a special principle, although actually it can never denote anything but 

 the summary of the phenomena that have given rise to its formation." Then 

 follows a description of these phenomena, which recalls that which Hum- 



^ See Part II, p. 2.65. 



