28 BIOGKAPHIES OF SCIENTIFIC MEN 



resembled the living tapir in the shape of the head, 

 although it differed in other respects. This animal also 

 lived in Eocene times. 



This remarkable man, of a rigidly demonstrative turn 

 of mind, when quite young set himself the task of inves- 

 tigating "the unknown" in zoology and palaeontology 

 by means of anatomical research. Linnaeus and Buffon 

 had described " the exterior " ; Cuvier studied " the 

 interior," and found intimate relation between them. 

 Genius directed his studies, and (like Lavoisier in chemistry) 

 he founded a new era in natural history. 



Whilst pursuing his researches on the anatomy of the 

 invertebrata, he soon saw that the animal forms he dis- 

 sected differed from the fossil forms which lay around 

 him. Palissy and Buffon (in different ages) had noticed 

 the same, and were declared to be dreamers ; but Cuvier 

 in his Ossemens Fossiles proved that they were so. His 

 work in this line established the laws of geology and 

 palaeontology, and upset many of the fanciful theories of 

 earlier times. As a skilled draughtsman he drew pictures 

 of the ancient fauna of the world's history; and even 

 from a bone, or part of a bone, he ventured to restore the 

 form of a fossil animal simply from the correlation of 

 parts. 



In his last great work, the Histoire Naturelle des 

 Poissons, he described 5000 species of fishes their 

 affinities, anatomy, and ancient and modern nomenclature. 



