CUVIER 27 



Embryology, or development, was always neglected 

 by Cuvier and his school, being blind to the fact that 

 embryology must play an important part in philosophic 

 anatomique. This fruitful field of research was left for 

 Wolff, Vicq-d'Azyr, Von Baer, and others. 



It has already been stated that comparative anatomy 

 was the basis of Cuvier's zoology, and there are numerous 

 and voluminous memoirs of his on the subject from 

 1795 to 1831 the year before his death. Among the 

 subjects investigated may be mentioned : the structure 

 of the larynx of birds, of the nasal fossae and organs of 

 hearing in the Cetacea (whales), of the organs of respiration 

 in the perennibranchiate amphibia (in the adult state 

 there are external branchiae combined with lungs), the 

 development of the teeth ; and concerning the vertebrata 

 generally he studied respiration, muscular force, animal 

 heat, the brain and intelligence, and the digestive and 

 nervous systems. His labours were incessant. 



In 1796 he published his traite on the skeletons of 

 the Megatherium and Megalonyx, and on the skulls of 

 fossil bears ; and between 1796 and 1812 he had examined 

 the bones and skeletons belonging to more than forty 

 different species. Cuvier's Xiphodon was about the size 

 of the chamois, light, graceful, and agile, and it belonged 

 to a tribe of animals between the Pachydermata and 

 Euminantia. Its fossil bones were found in the Upper 

 Eocene strata of France. Cuvier's Palseotkerium magnum 



