NATURAL HISTORY OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENT. 401 



on the spectacle of the tranquil submission of an infinitude of beings 

 to necessary and eternal law." 



GEORGE CUVIER (1769 1832), afterwards Baron Cuvier, is the 

 most illustrious zoologist of the period we are considering. He ex- 

 hibited extraordinary talents in very early life, for he was able to read 

 fluently before he had completed his third year. Cuvier's case con- 

 tradicted the observation that precocity of this kind seldom fulfils its 

 promise by the attainments of maturity. His acquirements increased 

 with his years, and at an early age he showed remarkable proficiency in 

 drawing, literature, law, and natural science, while attending the Military 

 School at Stuttgard. But the subjects which engaged Cuvier's attention 



FIG. 183. SKELETON OF PLESIOSAURUS (an extinct vertebrate). 



at one time or another include also languages, philosophy, poetry, phy- 

 siology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, and agriculture. He may 

 be considered the creator of two new sciences, namely, Comparative 

 Anatomy and Palaeontology. It was he who from the scattered bones 

 reconstructed for us the skeleton of the huge extinct vertebrates, the 

 ple$iosauru$i the megatherium, the palczotherium, and others. He first 

 enunciated the law of the correlation of organs, according to which 

 a certain conformation of structure in one organ is always found in 

 conjunction with a certain conformation in another. 



Cuvier, by tracing the connection which exists between the internal 

 organization and outward form of animals, and by observing how these 

 accorded with their habits and economy, approached nearer than his 

 predecessor, Buffon, to the perfect natural classification. He pub- 

 lished in 1795 m ' s nr st memoir on the Invertebrata, and two years 

 later his " Tableau Elemental de PHistoire Naturelle des Ammaux" 

 His "Comparative Anatomy" followed in 1800 and 1805 ; then a long 



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