CUVIER. 195 



is this power, put into action by the change of the 

 universe, that has raised the simple zoophytes of the 

 primitive world to continually higher stages of or- 

 ganization, and has introduced a countless variety 

 of species into animate Nature." 



GEORGES CUVIER (1769-1832), as the great oppo- 

 nent of Lamarckian doctrines in particular, of Evo- 

 lution in general, and of the methods of thought 

 which were surely leading to its demonstration, de- 

 serves a few words in this history. It is interesting 

 to note that in forming his personal opinions, he re- 

 versed the order taken by Linnaeus, Lamarck, and 

 St. Hilaire; for, starting with views very similar to 

 the most advanced held by Buffon upon the muta- 

 bility of species, he arrived at a point as conserva- 

 tive as the early position of Linnaeus, insisting upon 

 the fixity, not only of species, but of varieties. His 

 definition was of the kind destined to prevail until 

 1858. "All the beings belonging to one of these 

 forms (perpetuated since the beginning of all things, 

 that is, the Creation) constitute what we call spe- 

 cies." As head of the illustrious Ecole des Faits, 

 he laughed, and set his pupils laughing, over the 

 ' Philosophy of Nature,' characterizing it as ' La tete 

 de la lete! 



It is strange that whenever Cuvier left his ob- 

 jective studies for speculation, he was exceptionally 

 unsound ; in his Embryology he believed in * Evo- 

 lution ' versus * Epigenesis ' ; in his Discours sur 

 les Revolutions sur la Surface du Globe, he advo- 



