INTR OD UCTION. 7 



the latter. Thus the teeth and limbs have a certain definite 

 relation to each other, or, in other words, are correlated. Again, 

 horned quadrupeds are all herbivorous (or graminivorous), and 

 have hoofs to their feet. The following amusing anecdote serves 

 to illustrate Cuvier's law. One of his students thought he would 

 try and frighten his master, and, having dressed up as a wild 

 beast, entered Cuvier's bedroom by night, and, presenting himself 

 by his bedside, said in hollow tones, " Cuvier, Cuvier, I've come 

 to eat you ! " The great naturalist, who on waking up was able 

 to discern something with horns and hoofs, simply remarked, 

 " What ! horns, hoofs — graminivorous — you can't ! " What better 

 lesson could the master have given the pupil to help him to 

 remember his " Law of Correlation " ? 



Cuvier's great work, entitled Ossemens Fossiles, will long remain 

 an imperishable monument of the genius and industry of the 

 greatest pioneer in this region of investigation. This work 

 proved beyond a doubt to his astonished contemporaries the 

 great antiquity of the tribes of animals now living on the surface 

 of the earth. It proved more than that, however ; for it showed 

 the existence of a great philosophy in Nature which linked the 

 past with the present in a scheme that pointed to a continuity of 

 life during untold previous ages. All this was directly at variance 

 with the prevalent ideas of his time, and consequently his views 

 were regarded by many with alarm, and he received a good deal 

 of abuse — a fate which many other original thinkers before him 

 have shared. 



It is somewhat difficult for people living now, and accustomed 

 to modern teaching, to realise how novel were the conclusions 

 announced by Cuvier. In his Discourse on the Revolutions of the 

 Surface of the Globe, translated into most European languages 

 under the title Theory of the Earthy he lays down, among 

 others, the two following propositions : — 



1. That all organised existences were not created at the same 

 time; but at different times, probably very remote from each 



