MEMOIR OF CUVIER. 27 



Nature which Paris could then present, his mind at 

 ease, and occupied with his favourite pursuits, and he 

 was conscious that he had won all honourably by his 

 own exertions. His next desire was to show him- 

 self worthy of the confidence which had been re- 

 posed in him: he laboured incessantly to complete 

 the collection of Comparative Anatomy, which he 

 had commenced upon the basis of a few preparations 

 and skeletons left by Buffon ; while, at the same time, 

 his lectures and demonstrations were already spread- 

 ing his fame as a teacher widely over Europe. It 

 was in this same year of his appointment * that 

 he so conspicuously shewed his intimate knowledge 

 of comparative anatomy, in his memoir upon the 

 Megalonix of Jefferson, which had been considered 

 an immense carnivorous animal, the enemy of the 

 Mastodon. Cuvier beautifully demonstrated the huge 

 remains of this animal to belong to the family of the 

 Sloths, pointing out their structure, and deducing 

 his reasonings with a clearness which brought im- 

 mediate conviction, without leaving room for a doubt. 

 This was among the first of those papers wherein he 

 made use of the comparison of the recent with the 

 fossil species, and which commenced a totally new 

 era in our investigation of the structure of the world 

 From this period, Cuvier gradually, but surely, 

 rose in knowledge and in honours. The National 

 Institute was erected, and he became one of its ear- 



* When referring to the dates of his works, we have 

 used the useful chronological list of them added to the 

 conclusion of Mrs Lee's Memoirs of Baron Cuvier. 



