154 BIOLOGY AND ITS MAKERS 



lost his love for natural science. With him this was an 

 absorbing passion, and it may be said that he ranks higher 

 as a zoologist than as a legislator. 



Comprehensiveness of Mind. Soon after his arrival in 

 Paris he began to lecture upon comparative anatomy and to 

 continue work in a most comprehensive way upon the subjects 

 which he had cultivated at Caen. He saw everything on a 

 large scale. This led to his making extensive studies of what- 

 ever problems engaged his mind, and his studies were com- 

 bined in such a manner as to give a broad view of the subject. 



Indeed, comprehensiveness of mind seems to have been 

 the characteristic which most impressed those who were 

 acquainted with him. Flourens says of him: " Ce qui ca- 

 racterise par tout M. Cuvier, c'est V esprit vaste." His broad 

 and comprehensive mind enabled him to map out on great 

 lines the subject of comparative anatomy. His breadth was 

 at times his undoing, for it must be confessed that when the 

 details of the subject are considered, he was often inaccurate. 

 This was possibly owing to the conditions under which he 

 worked; having his mind diverted into many other chan- 

 nels, never neglecting his state duties, it is reasonable to 

 suppose that he lacked the necessary time to prove his ob- 

 servations in anatomy, and we may in this way account for 

 some of his inaccuracies. 



Besides being at fault in some of his comparative anat- 

 omy, he adhered to a number of ideas that served to retard 

 the progress of science. He was opposed to the ideas of his 

 contemporary Lamarck, on the evolution of animals. He 

 is remembered as the author of the dogma of catastrophism 

 in geology. He adhered to the old notion of the pre-forma- 

 tion of the embryo, and also to the theory of the sponta- 

 neous origin of life. 



Founds Comparative Anatomy. Regardless of this 

 qualification, he was a great and distinguished student, and 



