16 INTRODUCTION. 
1765. Réaumur (1683-1757) made the earliest zoological 
collection in France; and the West Indian collections of Sir 
Hans Sloane (1660-1752) were the nucleus of the British 
Museum. The accumulation of specimens suggested com- 
parisons, which eventually resulted in the highest advance of 
the science. 
The brilliant style of Buffon (1707-1788) made Zoology 
popular not only in France, but throughout Europe. While 
the genius of Linnzeus led to classification, that of Buffon lay 
in description. He was the first to call attention to the sub- 
ject of Distribution. Lamarck (1745-1829), of Paris, was 
the next great light. The publication of his “Animaux sans 
Vertébres,” in 1801, was an epoch in the history of the lower 
animals. He was also the first prominent advocate of the 
transmutation of species. 
But the brightest luminary in Zoology was George Cuvier 
(1769-1832), a German, born on French soil. Before his 
time, “there was no great principle of classification. Facts 
were accumulated, and more or less systematized, but they 
were not yet arranged according to law; the principle was 
still wanting by which to generalize them and give meaning 
and vitality to the whole.” It was Cuvier who found the key, 
He was the first to so interpret structure as to be able from the 
inspection of one bone to reconstruct the entire animal, and 
assign its position. His anatomical investigations revealed 
the natural affinities of animals, and led to the grand general- 
ization, that the most comprehensive groups in the kingdom 
were based, not on special characters, but on different plans 
of structure. Palissy had long ago (1580) asserted that pet- 
rified shells were of animal origin; but the publication of 
Cuvier’s “ Memoir on Fossil Elephants,” in 1800, was the 
beginning of those profound researches on the remains of 
ancient life which created Paleontology. The discovery of 
the true relation between all animals, living and extinct, open- 
ed a boundless field of inquiry; and from that day the advance 
of Zoology has been unparalleled. Special studies of particu- 
lar parts or classes of animals have so rapidly developed, that 
the history of Zoology during the last fifty years is the history 
of many sciences.” 
