MEMOIR OF CUVIER. 127 



Pressed by want of time I must deny myself all details on tliis work, so 

 astonisliini^ for its extent, and yet still mcjre astonishing- for that profound art in 

 the formation of genera andfamilies, of which the author seems to have del iirhted 

 to unveil the most ludden secrets, and for that science of characters which no 

 one ever possessed in an equal degree ; results of experience and fruits of a 

 genius aiTived at its full maturity.* 



Such is the assemblage of great labors by which M. Cuvier has renovated 

 zoology ; but a reibrin still more important, and of which that is in reality but 

 the consequence, is what be bad already effected, or was at the same time effecting 

 in coDipamfive anatomy. It is imiu)ssil)le to speak of the progress which this 

 science owed to the researches of M. Cuvier without profound respect and even 

 grateful acknowledgment ; he himself regarded this branch of investigation, and 

 with justice, as the regulator of all those whioh relate to organized beings, and 

 death surprised him still meditating that great work which he had consecrated 

 to it, and in which, collecting anew all its forces, his vast g(!nius would have 

 undoubtedly appeared in all its grandeur. But though this work remained 

 unaccomplished, its principal elements sul)sist, as they are scattered in various 

 memoirs, especially in \\\^ Lecons cV anatomic comparccaxn\.\\\& Bccherclics sur Ics 

 ossements fossiles^ immortal labors which have communicated to comparative 

 anatomy such an impulsion that, after having been so long the most neglected 

 of the branches of natural history, it has suddenly outstripped and taken the lead 

 of all of them. 



The history of comparative anatomy counts three epochs clearly marked — 

 the epoch of Aristotle, that of Claude Pcrrault, and that of Cuvier. Every 

 one knows with how much genius the foundations of the science were laid by 

 Aristotle among the ancients. But what is not as well known, though not less 

 worthy of being so, is the force of intellect with which Claude Perraidt, at the 

 middle of the seventeenth century, undertook the reconstruction of the entire 

 science from its very base — that is to say, from the consideration of particuliir 

 facts. His descrijTtions are the first assured step taken by com[)arative anatomy 

 in modern times. Daubenton advanced it still another, for he rendered those 

 descriptions comparable. Vicq-d'Azyr went yet further. Rich through the 

 lal)ors of Daul)enton, of Ilaller, of Hunter, of Jlonro, of Camper, of Pallas, 

 Vicq-d'Azyr embraced comparative anatomy in its completeness ; he brought to it 

 that penetrating genius which sees in science the end to be attained, and that 

 spirit of sequeiice which attains it ; and by no one more than by him was that 

 great reform promoted which M. Cuvier finally achieved for the science in question. 



It was certaiidy fortunate for this "science to have passed immediately from the 

 hands of one of these two eminent men into the hands of the other. Vicq-d'Azyr 

 had thrown on it the glance of the physiologist 5 M. Cuvier threw on it more 

 particularly that of the zoologist, and we may concede that it had an equal 

 need of being considered under Ixjth these points of view. It may well be 

 thought that its reform would not have been so complete and its influence so 

 general except that, having been b}- tinns studied and adapted with a view both 

 to zoology anil })hysiology, it has beconle alike for both the guide and the lumi- 

 nary. 



However this may b-e, comparative anatomy was still but a collection of par- 

 ticular facts touching the structure of animals, when M. Cuvier transformed it 

 into the science of the gen(?ral laws of the animal organizivtion. After having 

 transformed, as we have seen, the zoological method from being a simple nomen- 

 clature into an instrument of generalization, he n(nv proceeded to dispose the facts 

 in comparative anatomy in such an order that, from their simple collocation, have 

 proceeded so many admirable and progressively ascending laws; as, for example, 

 that each kind of organ has its fixed and determined modilications; that a con- 



* Sec, respecting this work, the developments which I present in my tlistoire des Travaux 

 de M. Cuvier. 



