204 HEROES OF SCIENCE. 



Committee of the Interior with his usual ability 

 and activity ; but at dinner that day he felt some 

 difficulty in swallowing, and the numbness in the 

 arm increased. When he felt himself thus ill, in 

 order to take away the attention of Madame 

 Cuvicr, he said, " I must eat more soup," swallowing 

 bread even being impossible. Advice was sought, 

 but during the next day both arms became para- 

 lyzed, and the swallowing was worse. He made 

 his will with perfect calmness, and it evinced the 

 tenderest solicitude for those whose cares and affec- 

 tions had comforted his life, and for those who had 

 aided him most in his scientific labours. He could 

 not sign the will, but it was attested by four wit- 

 nesses. Convinced that all human skill was in 

 vain, he nevertheless submitted to treatment by 

 his medical men. Paralysis crept on, and the legs 

 were attacked, his speech was affected, and he 

 muttered, " It is the nerves of volition that are 

 affected." He spoke of his last lecture, and said 

 to a friend who called, " Behold a very different 

 person to the man of Tuesday ; nevertheless I had 

 great things still to do. All was ready in my 

 head, after thirty years of labour and research ; 

 there remained but to write, and now the hands 

 fail and carry with them the head." Cuvier 

 gradually sank, but kept his intelligence nearly to 

 the last. It was his wish to be buried privately, in- 

 terred in the cemetery of Pere le Chaise, under the 

 tombstone which covered his beloved child ; but 

 it was not possible to avoid the public demonstra- 



