MEMOIR. V 



The French National Institute, which has been so powerful an engine 

 in the diffusion of a taste for natural history, was instituted in 1706, and 

 amongst its founders the name of Cuvier is conspicuous. The first of 

 his coutributions to the literature of science bears the date of 1792; 

 several detached papers were, about this period, written and published by 

 him in periodical journals, and in them we trace the commencement of 

 that powerful devotion to fossil anatomy, which he subsequently elevated 

 into such an empire of natural wonders. The first of his more extended 

 and important works was the " Tableau Eleraentaire of the Natural His- 

 tory of Animals," which he published in 1798. In his capacity of 

 assistant to M. Mertrud, Cuvier had to deliver lectures on Comparative 

 Anatomy; and so valuable were they deemed, that a favourite and able 

 pupil of his, M. Dumeril, was induced to take notes of them, which, 

 with the author's sanction and assistance, he placed before the public. 

 They form the first two volumes of the Comparative Anatomy of Cuvier. 

 The " Tableau," just alluded to, was the rudimental form in which the 

 great principles of classification founded by Cuvier were fully developed. 

 In detached memoirs, such as that on the circulation of White-blooded 

 Animals, he had already supplied some knowledge of those principles; 

 but it was only in the larger work that he had entered upon the general 

 plan of classification, which was to rest, perhaps for ever, on the ruins of 

 the Linnsean system. 



lu 1800, Cuvier succeeded Mertrud, and resigned the chair of the 

 Central School of the Pantheon. 



When the expedition to Egypt was contemplated, Cuvier was amongst 

 the savants who had been nominated as fit to accompany the army, in the 

 capacity of naturalists. But he declined the compliment, having the at- 

 tractions at home, by which were provided for him a quiet life, and un- 

 bounded facilities for his favourite study. When Bonaparte assumed the 

 oflice of President of the National Institute, he selected Cuvier as one of 

 the six individuals who were to act as Inspectors-General, for the purpose 

 of establishing Lyceums for education in thirty towns of France, and in 

 this character he established useful seminaries for youth in Marseilles, 

 Nice, and Bordeaux, which still flourish under the title of Royal Colleges. 

 Whilst he was engaged in this important duty, a change of the constitu- 

 tion of the National Institute was effected, whereby the secretaryships 

 were made perpetual ; and Cuvier being raised to that of the National 

 Sciences, it remained in his hands up to the period of his death. 



The father of Cuvier having died from a fall, an event which was soon 

 followed by the premature death of his brother's wife, his home was no 

 longer that centre of domestic comfort which he had found it before. The 

 natural resource of a refined and prudent man placed in such a conditiou 



