APPENDIX. 329 



stances. The money which he received from the state 

 was in a great degree expended in the acquisition of 

 the books which were necessary to his labours, and in 

 the purchase of natural history objects which were placed 

 amongst the collections of the Museum. With the view 

 of obtaining the latter, he applied to all parts of the world, 

 and, thanks to his great name, all parts of the world 

 responded to the appeal. It was only by such means 

 that he was able in the course of a few years to found 

 and thoroughly to complete his splendid collections of 

 comparative anatomy and fossil bones. 



Cuvier had been nominated a member of the Insti- 

 tute in 1796, when he was twenty-six years of age. 

 Four years afterwards, his colleagues in the Department 

 of Sciences chose him for their secretary. The office 

 was then a biennial one ; and when, in 1802, it was made 

 perpetual, his nomination was confirmed by the entire 

 section. From this period till his death Cuvier discharged 

 the high and difficult functions of this post; and his 

 annual reports of the progress of the physical sciences, 

 of which he was himself the representative, are amongst 

 the noblest testimonies of the vastness and power which 

 can be exhibited by the human intellect. Two other 

 sections of the Institute, namely, the French Academy 

 and the Academy of Inscriptions, subsequently numbered 

 him amongst their members. Although already pro- 

 fessor at the Museum, Cuvier was soon called to occupy, 

 in the College of France, the chair which had been 

 formerly held by Daubenton ; he was, besides this, named 

 successively, by Napoleon, Inspector General of the 

 University, as well as Councillor of the University and 

 Councillor of State, while Louis XVIII. named him 

 Chancellor of the University, a baron, and Grand 

 Officer of the Legion of Honour, and Louis Philippe 

 made him a peer of France. Immediately on his death 



