THE 



EDINBURGH NEW 

 PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL. 



Historical Eloge on M. Frederic Cuvier.* By M. Flourens, 

 Perpetual Secretary of the Academy of Sciences.t 



Among the individuals to whom our Eloges are dedicated, 

 there are some who, by their brilliant labours, have early ac- 

 quired distinguished celebrity, and with regard to them our 

 voice is, to a certain extent, nothing more than an echo of 

 public gratitude ; whilst there are others who, having devoted 

 themselves to humbler pursuits, are hence less known. In 

 these latter instances, however, our Eloges are not on that ac- 

 count the less useful. They point out sources of information 

 of which we should probably have remained ignorant, and 

 preserve the recollection of respectable names it would be un- 

 just to forget. These considerations become peculiarly appli- 

 cable when they refer to an individual who, like the one on 

 whom I am about to dwell, has past thirty years of a labo- 

 rious life in profound study ; and has died leaving behind him 

 rather scattered observations than systematized doctrines, and 

 detached materials rather than a finished work. 



Frederic Cuvier, member of the Academy of Sciences, of 

 the Royal Society of London, and brother of George Cuvier, 

 was born at Montbeliard on the 28th of June 1773. His 

 brother was born on the 23d of August 1769, so that Frederic 

 was the younger, and by nearly four years. As soon as he 

 had passed the years of boyhood, he, like his brother, went to 



* Read July 13. 1840. 



t We are indebted to J. B. Pcntland, E*q. fur this early copy of the 

 Eloge. — Editok. 



VOL. XXX. NO. LIX. JANUARY 1840. A 



