BARON CUVIER. 313 



and that animals made their appearance subsequently. 

 He also remarked that the layers of the planetary 

 crust bore evidence that low and simple forms thrived 

 and became fossils before the higher orders were cre- 

 ated. He was the first to demonstrate that extinct 

 animals were organized on the same unity of plan or 

 type that exists in living specimens. He did not 

 think that there is a continuous or unbroken chain 

 running back from recent to extinct species, but that 

 there had always existed a co-relation of form in the 

 animal kingdom, which could be shown in the creat- 

 ure's entirety or in any of its parts. He held that 

 each bone of the skeleton must bear the characters of 

 its class, order, genus, and even species. In this I be- 

 lieve that he went even further than facts would war- 

 rant. Who could take the femur of a zebra and be 

 able to determine to what species of the equine family 

 it belonged? Who would take any number of bones 

 belonging to a large trout and a small salmon, and 

 undertake to demonstrate to what species of the sal- 

 monidcB the osseous specimens belonged ? 



In the quarries of Montmatre were discovered the 

 fossil bones of the elephant, the rhinosceros, the tiger, 

 the hyena, and of other large animals which Cuvier's 

 genius and industry helped to restore and to name. 

 By labors in this new field of scientific inquiry, Cuvier 

 established the department of palaeontology. The dis- 

 coveries were so new and startling that for a time 

 more interest was centered in extinct than in living 

 animals. 



Cuvier was a careful yet firm supporter of the 

 Mosaic account of creation, and was indisposed to 

 admit doctrines that ran counter to the teachings in 

 Genesis. He believed there had been several sn 



