53 MEMOIR OF CUVFER. 



Contrary, however, to all expectation, he rallied corr pletely, 

 and the excitement of his various studies, with the exertion 

 of lecturing, instead of increasing the dangerous symptoms, 

 strengthened his chest and lungs, and his voice became firm 

 and loud. He enjoyed this good health until his final ill- 

 ness. 



Cuvier was rather below the middle stature. His tem- 

 per, says Duvernoy, " was sanguine, nervous, lively, and 

 passionate ;" and, when a resolution was once taken, he 

 pursued it with ardour. His skin was very fair, his hair 

 red until the age of thirty : about this period, which nearly 

 agrees with the time when his lungs became strengthened, 

 and his general health was improved, it by degrees assumed 

 a darker or more chestnut shade. At the age of forty-five 

 he began to get stout, but he enjoyed excellent health ; and 

 at the age of sixty, he scarcely appeared to have passed his 

 fiftieth year. His sight continued excellent, and when 

 reading or writing, he never used spectacles. 



The body of Cuvier was opened and examined by M. Be- 

 rard the elder, in presence of MM. Orfila, Dumeril, Du- 

 puytren, Allard, Biot, Valenciennes, Laurillard, Rousseau, 

 and Andral the nephew, and a report of the examination 

 has been published in the Medical Gazette of France. 



Perhaps the most remarkable feature in the dissection 

 was the large size of the brain. " Soemmering," says M. 

 Berard, * fc computes the weight of the human brain to be 

 from two to three pounds. I arrived at the same result by 

 taking two brains from the Hospital St Antoine. The one, 

 from a woman aged thirty, weighed, with its membranes, 

 21b. lloz. 2 drachms: the other, from a man, aged forty, 

 21b. 12 oz. 6^drs. The brain of Cuvier raised 31b. 10 oz. 

 44 drs., being nearly a pound heavier than the weight of the 

 others. But the following result presented as much interest. 

 Upon comparing the weight of the cerebellum with that from 

 the man above mentioned, a difference of 1^ drachm only 

 was found in favour of that of M. Cuvier ; hence it followed, 

 that the excess of weight in his brain was distributed al- 

 most exclusively to the cerebral lobes, which have been ge- 

 nerally considered as the chief seat of the intellectual fa- 

 culties." 



