BARON CUVIER. 71 



mentary Treatise on the Natural History of Ani- 

 mals." His great desire was to be attached to the 

 Museum of Natural History, where he could study 

 the collections and enlarge them. Very soon after 

 his arrival in Paris, M. Mertrud was appointed to 

 the newly created chair of Comparative Anatomy 

 at the Jardin des Plantes. He was advanced in 

 years. And now came the opportunity for friend- 

 ship to do its work. Geoffrey St. Hilaire and De 

 Lacepede were his colleagues. They urged that 

 their friend Cuvier be appointed assistant, and 

 Mertrud gladly consented. This was indeed an 

 honor, since Daubenton, Buff on, Lamarck, and other 

 European celebrities had filled this position. 



Cuvier at once sent for his aged father, now 

 nearly eighty years old, and his only brother, 

 Frederic, to make their home with him. The 

 precious mother had died two years previously. 

 She did not live to see the fame of her eldest son, 

 but she must have been convinced of his future 

 greatness, and been comforted by the prospect. 



From the moment of entering upon his new 

 work, Cuvier began to develop that wonderful 

 collection in comparative anatomy which is now 

 so celebrated. Nothing ever turned him from his 

 purpose of making this the most extensive col- 

 lection in the world; no sorrow, no legislative 

 duties, no absence. No one who has visited Paris 

 will ever forget the seventy -five acres in the Jar- 

 din des Plantes, with trees and flowers from all 

 the world ; with thirteen rooms filled with skele. 



