CURRIK, JAM US, M.D. 



i'.ll, BARON. 



work : ' The Handbook to Westminster Abbey,' 1842 ; ' The Life of 

 Inigo Jones/ published by the Shak>pere Society in 1848; 'Modem 

 Looilon,' 1851 ; ' Prefatory Memoir of J. M. W. Turner,' prefixed to 

 John Burnefa ' Turner and hi* Work*,' 1852 ; and ' The Story of Nell 

 Owynn,' 1823. 



CURRIE, JAMES, M.D., was born Slit of May 1756, at Kirkpatrick- 

 Fleming, in Dumfriesshire, of which parish his father was clergyman. 

 Being originally intended for a mercantile life, as coon as he had 

 received the rudiment* of a liberal education ho went to Virginia ; 

 but upon the breaking out of the American war in 1776 he returned 

 home, and aoon after commenced the study of medicine at the Uni- 

 Termity of Edinburgh. Having completed the usual course, he took 

 hu degree cf M.D. at Glasgow in 1780, and immediately proceeded to 

 London. HU intention was to go out to Jamaica, but a sudden 

 attack of illness preventing him from sailing after he had taken his 

 passage, be settled and began to practise in Liverpool in 17S1. Here 

 lie foon met with great success in his profession. His first publica- 

 tion was a biographical memoir of a deceased friend, winch was 

 printed in the 'Transactions of the Manchester Philosophical and 

 Literary Society ' for 17>5. In 1790 a paper ou tetanus and convulsive 

 disorders, which be communicated to the third volume of the ' Memoirs 

 of the London Medical Society,' considerably extended his professional 

 reputation. In 1792 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. 

 In 1793 he published a pamphlet against the policy of the war with 

 France, under the title of ' A Letter, Commercial and Political, 

 addressed to the RUht Hon. William Pitt, by Jasper Wilson, Esq.,' 

 which attracted a good deal of attention. In 1797 appeared the work 

 on which his professional reputation principally rests, entitled ' Medical 

 Reports on the Effects of Water, cold and warm, as a remedy in 

 Febrile Diseases.' The method of treatment here recommended by 

 Dr. Currie, affusion in colJ water in cases of fever, though a remedy 

 not to be trusted except to the most skilful hands, has since been 

 applied in suitable circumstances with extraordinary success. A 

 second volume of the 'Report*' appeared in 1804, and the author 

 was preparing a new edition of tho whole work when he died. The 

 name of Dr. Currie is best known to general readers by his edition 

 of the works of Robert Burns, including both his Poems and Letters, 

 which he published for the benefit of the poet's family, in 4 vols 8vo, 

 in 1 -uO. It was introduced by a criticism on the writings of Burns, 

 and ' Some Observation* on the character and condition of the Scottish 

 Peasantry,' both of which papers were drawn up with much elegance 

 and ability. Thu edition has formed the basis of every succeeding 

 collection of the poet's works. In 1804 Dr. Currie felt his health 

 rapidly giving way; and leaving Liverpool, he spent some time in 

 Bath and Clifton. In March 1805 he considered himself to be so far 

 restored, that he took a house and commenced practising in Bath ; but 

 his illness soon returned, and he died at Sidmouth on the 31st of 

 August in the fame Tear. 



CU VIE'R, GEORGES - CHRETIEN - LEOPOLD - DAQOBERT, 

 BARON, was born 23rd of August 1769, at Muutbc'liard, now in the 

 department of Doubs, but which at that time was a county belonging 

 to the dukes of Wurtemberg. His father, a half-pay officer of a Swiss 

 regiment in the French service, had married late in life a young and 

 aooomplithed woman, who took especial care of C'uvier's early educa- 

 tion. He was sent to study first at Tubingen, and he afterwards 

 entered the Acodemia Carolina, then newly-established at Stutgardt 

 by Prince Charles of Wurtemberg for the purpose of training up 

 young men for public and diplomatic offices. Cuvier however bestowed 

 most of his time on natural history ; be collected specimens, and drew 

 and coloured iniecU, birds, and plants during his hours of recreation. 

 The limited circumstances of his family obliged him to remove from 

 Stutgardt before be obtained any public employment; and at twenty- 

 one years of age he accepted the situation of tutor to the only son of 

 Count d'Hericy in Normandy. The family residence being near the 

 ma, the itooy of marine animals became a part of Cuvier's occupa- 

 tion. He compared tho living species with the fossil remains found 

 in the neighbourhood ; and the dissection of a species of cuttle-fish 

 led him to study the anatomy of the mollusc*, and to reduce to 

 order this hitherto neglected branch of loology. Whilo he was thus 

 employed, a society was formed at Valmont, in his neighbourhood, for 

 the encouragement of agriculture. L'AbM Teiasier, a venerable and 

 Irarned old man, the author of the articles on agriculture in the 

 EocyclopMie MtSthodique,' had taken refuge at Valmont from the 

 revolution, disguising bis obnoxious chancier of AbtxS under the garb 

 and profession of a urg-on. At a meeting of tho new society he 

 expressed his opinions on his favourite subject in a manner which 

 forcibly reminded young Cuvier of the articles which he had read in 

 the ' KooTcioptfdie.' At the end of the sitting Cuvier addressed the 

 trantpr by the name of 1,'AbW Telssier : the abbd* was alum 

 Cavier soon removed Us apprehensions, and an intimacy was formed 

 between them. 



When the reign of terror bad ceased, Teissier wrote to Jussieu and 

 other friends at Paris in terms of high commendation of his new 

 acquaintance. The result wss that Cuvier was requested to forward 

 some of his papers to the Society of Natural History, and shortly after, 

 in 1796, being then twenty-six years of age, he went to Paris, and in 

 the same year was appointed ani.tant to Mertrud in the superintend- 

 ence of the Jardin den PUntes, which locality became from that time 



his home, and the scene of his labours and of his fame. Here he began 

 tho creation of that now splendid collection of comparative anatomy, 

 and in December of the same year he opened his first course on that 

 branch of science. In 1796 the National Institute was formed, and 

 Cuvier was one of its first members. In 1798 he published his ' Tableau 

 Kle'mentaire de 1'Histoire Naturello des Animaux,' and afterwards his 

 ' Mdmoire sur lea Ossemens Fossiles des Quadrupedes,' and ' MiSmoire 

 sur les Ossemens Fossiles qui se trouvent dans les Gypses de Mont- 

 martre.' He continued to illustrate the subject of fossil remains by 

 subsequent memoirs. In the year 1800 he was named professor of 

 natural philosophy at the College de France, continuing at the sitno 

 time his lectures on comparative anatomy at tho Jardin des Plantes. 

 In that year were published the first two volumes of his ' Lecons 

 d'Anatomie Comparee,' which met with the greatest success. The 

 three following volumes appeared in 1805. lu 1802 the First Consul 

 Bonaparte appointed Cuvier one of the six inspectors-general for 

 establishing lycea, or public schooN, which were supported by the 

 government, in thirty towns of France. Cuvier established those of 

 Marseille, Nice, and Bordeaux. He was about the same time appointed 

 perpetual secretary to the Institute for the Department of Natural 

 Sciences, with a salary of 6000 franc*. lu 1803 be married the widow 

 of M. Duvaucel, a former fermier-goni5ral : four children whom he had 

 by this marriage all die 1 before him. In 1808 he was commissioned 

 by Napoleon to write a report on the progress of the natural sciences 

 from tho year 1789. The luminous and interesting treatise which he 

 produced on this occasion wai formally presented to Napoleon in the 

 council of state. Cuvier declares the true object of science to be, " to 

 lead the mind of man towards its noble destination a knowledge of 

 truth ; to spread sound and wholesome ideas among the lowest classes 

 of the people; to draw human beings from the empire of prejudices 

 and passions; to make reason the arbitrator and supreme guide of 

 public opinion." His next appointment was that cf counsellor for Ufa 

 of the new Imperial University, in which capacity he had frequent 

 personal intercourse with Napoleon. In 1809-10 he wag charged with 

 the organisation of the new academies, the name designed to be given 

 to the old universities of the Italian states which were annexed to 

 the empire. He organised those of Piedmont, Genoa, and Tuscany. 

 His reports of thosa missions exhibit the mild and enlightened Bpirit 

 which he brought to the task. In 1311 he was sent on a similar mission 

 to Holland and the Han sea tic towns : his report especially concerning 

 Holland is very interesting, as the subject of public instruction in that 

 couutry U not generally known. He paid particular attention not 

 only to the higher branches of education, but also to popular or 

 elementary instruction : his principle was, that instruction would lead 

 to civilisation, and civilisation to morality, and therefore that primary 

 or elementary instruction should give to the people every means of 

 fully exercising their industry without disgusting them with th -ir 

 condition; that secondary instruction, such as in the lycea, should 

 expand the mind, without ren Jering it false or presumptuous ; and 

 that special or scientific instruction should give to France magistrates, 

 physicians, advocates, generals, clergymen, professors, and otuer men 

 of learning. 



In 1813 Cuvier was sent to Rome, then annexed to the French 

 empire, to organise the universities there. Although his being a 

 Protestant rendered this mission the more delicate, yet his enlightened 

 tolerance and benignity of manner gained him the general esteem and 

 approbation in the capital of the Catholic world. Soon after Napoleon 

 appointed him mattre-des-requdtes to the council of state, and in 1814, 

 just before his abdication, he named him councillor of state, an appoint- 

 ment which was confirmed by Louis XVIII., who goon after appointed 

 him chancellor of the university, an office which he held till his death. 



Cuvier published in 1817 a second edition of the ' Recherchcs sur 

 les Ossemens Fossiles,' in 5 vols. 8vo, and also his ' Rcgne Animal,' in 

 4 vols., in which the whole subject-matter of zoology, beginning with 

 man, is arranged according to the principle of organisation. In 1818 

 he made a journey to England, where he was received with appropriate 

 honour. In the same year ho was elected a member of the French 

 Academy. In 1819 he was appointed president of the committee of 

 the interior in the council of state, an office which, fortunately for him, 

 was beyond the sphere of political intrigues, and only required order, 

 impartiality, and an exact knowledge of the laws and principles of the 

 administration. In the same year Louis XVIII., as a personal mark 

 of his regard, created him a baron. He was appointed also temporary 

 grand master of the university, an office however which ho willingly 

 : resigned for that of grand master of the Faculties of Protestant 

 Theology in 1822. He himself stipulated that he should receive no 

 salary for this latter office. He was mode at the same time one of 

 the vice-pronidcuts of the Bible Society. Through his care fifty new- 

 Protestant cures wore created in France. He also established new 

 professorships of history, living languages, and natural history, in the 

 ' minor schools of the kingdom. In 1825 ho republished, separately, 

 j the preliminary discourse to the ' Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles, 

 which is generally known by the title of ' Discours sur lea Revolutions 

 j do la Surface du Globe,' and has been translated into most European 

 languages under the title of ' Theory of the Earth.' This work is a 

 series of deductions from actual facts, authenticated by his own 

 researches into the fossil remains, classed according to tho strata in 

 which they wei-j found. Cuvier draws the following conclusions : 1st. 



