MEMOIR OP GEOFFEOY SAINT HILAIRE. 167 



an article of this unfortunate capitulation, the French savans were 

 to he despoiled of the fruits of the researches from which they pro- 

 mised themselves so much honor. Fired with indignation, he pro- 

 posed to his colleagues to employ the time which remained before 

 the execution of the treaty in burning their collections. This sacri- 

 fice had been determined on, when the English agent, struck with 

 respect, paused before so energetic a resolution and the article was 

 erased. 



After four years absence Geoffrey returned from Egypt, "loaded," 

 as Fontenelle said of Tournefort returning from Greece, "with the 

 spoils of the East." As if inspired with new ardor for study, we 

 find his re-entrance into the museum marked by even multiplied 

 labors in the two sciences which have occupied his life, zoology 

 and comparative anatomy. In the former, it is the equally accurate 

 and intuitive perception of the analogy of natural beings, what he 

 himself called the instinct of affinities^ which peculiarly distinguishes 

 him. It was this instinct which guided him to a higher law of me- 

 thod, by virtue of which, in conjunction with the principle of the 

 suhoi'dination of organs^ he established that of changeable siLbordina- 

 tions; the same characteristic which predominates in one group being 

 possibly but a subordinate characteristic in another. Thus the teeth, 

 a dominant characteristic in the group of carnivorous animals, form 

 but a subordinate one in the group of bats, marsupials, &c., and, if 

 followed out, would break up all the relations which constitute the 

 family in the latter group. Viewing method thus under a new aspect, 

 Geofiroy finds in general classification no other merit than the nega- 

 tive one of leaving the natural and direct relationship of species un- 

 broken. Thus regarded, method is no longer a series of divisions and 

 interruptions, but a chain of relations which mutually call for and 

 adapt themselves to one another. In the time. of Linnasus, it was the 

 w^de intervals, the marked differences which engaged the attention 

 of naturalists, because the number of known species was then incon- 

 siderable. In proportion as that number increased, (and it increases 

 continually,) marked differences become effaced, the intermediate 

 shades melt into one another and the wide intervals are filled up. 

 The unity of the animal kingdom stands revealed, and we compre- 

 hend the profound expression of Bufifon, that "shadings (les nuances) 

 are the great work of nature." 



If, in zoology, the predominant idea of Geoffrey was the unity of 

 the animal kingdom, in comparative anatomy it was his constant aim 

 to prove that unity by the unity of composition. Thus all his re- 

 searches in this line tended to the discovery of analogies. Beginning 

 with the comparative study of the members, he passed from thence 

 to that of the skull. The skull of the crocodile and of fishes is com- 

 posed of twenty-five or twenty-six bones, while that of birds and 

 adult quadrupeds has but eight or ten. It was necessary to reconcile 

 this apparent diversity with the theory of unity, and one of those 

 happy inspirations which fall only to the lot of genius led Geoffrey 

 to examine the skull of the fcetus in birds and quadrupeds. Here all 

 the primitive bones, which at a later period will unite to form a com- 



