138 MEMOIE OF CUVIER. 



of the objects engraved them much better in his mind than if, to use his own 

 expression, he had had at his disposal any number of prints and descriptions. 

 Besides, having neither figures nor descriptions he made them for himself. 



Still, all these excursions into natural history had not interfered with the pre- 

 scribed studies ; he had borne off almost all the prizes ; had obtained the order 

 of chevalier which was accorded to only five or six of all those young persons ; 

 and, according to appearances, he might have promptly obtained an appointment. 

 But, fortunately for him and for natural history — and these two destinies were 

 thenceforth inseparable — the situation of his parents did not permit him to wait. 

 It was necessary for him to decide, and the place of preceptor having been 

 offered to him by a family of Normandy at the moment when he was quitting 

 Stuttgard, he hastened to accept it, and at once set out for Caen, where he 

 arrived July, 1788, being then something less than 19 years of age. 



From this moment his passion for natural history acquired new force. The 

 family of Herici, to which he was attached, went to reside at a country seat of 

 Oaux, a short distance from Fecamp. It was here that our young naturalist 

 lived from 91 to 94, surrounded, as he says, with the most diversified products, 

 lavished upon him, as if in eurulation, by the sea and land ; always in the midst 

 of such objects, almost without books, having no one to whom he could commu- 

 nicate his reflections, which, therefore, only acquired the greater depth and 

 energy. It was at this period, in effect, that his mind began to open for itself 

 new paths ; it was then that at the sight of some tcrebratulce, disniterred near 

 Fecamp, he conceived the idea of comparing fossil with living species; that the 

 dissection of some mollusks suggested to him that other idea of a reform to be 

 introduced in the methodical distribution of animals; so that the germs of his 

 two most important labors, the comparison of fossil with living species, and the 

 reform of the classification of the animal kingdom, ascend to this epoch. 



From this epoch also date his first relations with M, Tessier, whom the 

 storms of the revolution then retained at Fecamp, and who had there occupied 

 for some time the place of ph3^sician-in-chief of the military hospital. M. Tes- 

 sier could not see the young Cuvier -without being struck with the extent of his 

 • knowledge. He first engaged him to deliver a course of botany to the physicians 

 of his hospital ; he afterwards wrote to all his friends in Paris to impart to them 

 the happy discovery which he had made, and especially to those of the Jardin 

 des Plantes, who at once conceived the idea of calling the young naturalist 

 thither as assistant of Mertrud, then in charge of the department of comparative 

 anatomy. " Often," says M. Cuvier, in reference to this circumstance, " has a 

 phrase of M. Tessier, in his letter to M. de Jussieu, recurred to me : You remem- 

 ber, he said, tJiat it tvas I ivlio gave Belamhre to the academy ; in another walk 

 this cdso ■will be a Belamhre." It was to M. Tessier, therefore, that the Academy 

 of Sciences owed both Delambre and Cuvier. A man wdio should have rendered 

 but these two services to the sciences might count on the respect and gratitude 

 of all who cultivate them. But how much more vividly do such incidents touch 

 us when they embellish a life wholly consecrated to science, its progress and 

 application, and spent in a long succession of useful labors and virtuous actions ! 



It was said by Fontenellc to Ije a piece of good fortune on the part of savants, 

 whom their reputation might afterwards call to the capital, to have had leisure 

 to lay up a good stock of funds in the repose of a province. M. Cuvier's stock 

 was so good that some montlis after his arrival in Paris, in 1795, his reputation 

 already equalled that of the most celebrated naturalists, and the same year, which 

 was also that of the creation of the National Institute, he was named adjunct of 

 Daubenton and Lacepede, who formed the nucleus of the section of zoology. Tlie 

 year following he connuenced the courses which l)ecame so rapidly celebrated at 

 the central school of the Pantheon. In 1799, the death of Daubenton led to his 

 a})pointment tothe nuichmore important chair of natural history at the college of 

 Francx'; and, in 1802, Mertrud being dead, he became titular professor at the 

 Jardin des Plantes. 



