148 BIOLOGY AND ITS MAKERS 



As Huxley has said, " he may be considered as the founder 

 of the modern science of anatomy." His work on the struc- 

 ture of the brain was the most exact which had appeared up 

 to that time, and in his studies on the brain he entered into 

 broad comparisons as he had done in the study of the other 

 parts of the animal organization. 



He died at the age of forty-six, without being able to 

 complete a large work on human anatomy, illustrated with 

 colored figures. This work had been announced and en- 

 tered upon, but only that part relating to the brain had 

 appeared at the time of his death. Besides drawings of the 

 exterior of the brain, he made sections; but he was not able 

 to determine with any particular degree of accuracy the 

 course of fiber tracts in the brain. This was left for other 

 workers. He added many new facts to those of his pred- 

 ecessors, and by introducing exact comparisons in anatomy 

 he opened the field for Cuvier. 



Cuvier. When Cuvier, near the close of the eighteenth 

 century, committed himself definitely to the progress of 

 natural science, he found vast accumulations of separate 

 monographs to build upon, but he undertook to dissect 

 representatives of all the groups of animals, and to found 

 his comparative anatomy on personal observations. The 

 work of Vicq d'Azyr marked the highest level of attain- 

 ment, and afforded a good model of what comparisons 

 should be; but Cuvier had even larger ideas in reference 

 to the scope of comparative anatomy than had his great 

 predecessor. 



The particular feature of Cuvier's service was that in his 

 investigations he covered the whole field of animal organiza- 

 tion from the lowest to the highest, and uniting his results 

 with what had already been accomplished, he established 

 comparative anatomy on broad lines as an independent 

 branch of natural science. Almost at the outset he conceived 



