52 MEMOIR OF CUVIER. 



life he made it his study, as then one of the only me- 

 thods in his power, to transfer the rarities in other 

 collections to his own, and he became both an expert 

 artist himself, and a judge of the higher branches of 

 the art. Many of the plates for his works are drawn 

 by himself, and a large collection of designs has been 

 left, principally intended to illustrate his great work 

 on Comparative Anatomy. During his visits to Eng- 

 land, portions of his time were spent in taking down 

 the most remarkable species in our own collections, 

 and few of the exhibitions of art, which were at the 

 time open, were left unvisited. 



The extensive correspondence which he main- 

 tained, would have been too laborious an undertak- 

 ing without some assistance, and Cuvier was fortu- 

 nate in securing that of M. Laurillard. Instead of his 

 secretary, he became his friend and companion, and, 

 enjoying his confidence, carefully guarded the trust 

 which was confided to him. He accompanied him 

 upon his journeys, and took charge of the arrange- 

 ment of his papers, books, and manuscripts. 



At home among the latter there was constant and 

 sufficient employment. The valuable library con- 

 tained 19,000 volumes,* which were either pur- 



* We add a note from Mrs Lee's interesting volume, re- 

 garding the distribution of this library. " To the books 

 purchased by himself, were added those published at the 

 expense of government, copies of which were always pre- 

 sented to him ; and the numerous gifts he received from 

 authors of all countries, who were universally anxious to j>ay 



