130 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



Keeping this unity of form, this absorbing vortex of 

 life, the totality of organisation, always before him, 

 Cuvier, in surveying the whole region of animated 

 nature, 1 fixes finally for tha purposes of classification and 

 division on that system of organs which expresses most 

 truly the peculiarity of each of the great branches into 

 which he divides the animal world namely, the nervous 

 system. 2 But rather than follow him at present into the 



1 " La partie anatomique du prob- 

 leine general de la vie est resolue 

 depuis longtemps pour les animaux. 

 au moins pour ceux d'entre eux qui 

 nous interessent le plus. Les voies 

 que les substances y parcourent, 

 sont connues ; . . . il apei^oit 

 aussi comment ces routes, si com- 

 pliquees dans 1'homme, se simpli- 

 fieut par degres dans les animaux 

 inferieurs, et finissent par se reduire 

 a une spongiosite uniforme. Les 

 recherches de M. Cuvier dans les 

 lemons d'anatomie compare* ont 

 acheve" d'assigner a chaque animal 

 sa place dans la grande e"chelle dea 

 complications de structure" ('Rap- 

 port,' p. 202, &c.) 



2 It is not my object here to give 

 an account of the views of Cuvier, 

 still less of his contributions to 

 natural history, which in spite of 

 the special theories and laws which 

 he and his followers established (see 

 especially Flourens, 'Histoire des 

 Travaux de Georges Cuvier,' 3 me 

 &L, 1858) remained in his hands 

 to the last pre-eminently a science 

 of observation. It has been pointed 

 out that Cuvier only gradually (pro- 

 bably about 1812) arrived at the final 

 principle of division viz., the ner- 

 vous system and that he adopted 

 it from others (notably Yirey and 

 De Blainville), that before 18*12 he 

 had successively used the organs of 

 generation (1795), of nutrition, and 

 of circulation as principles of clas- 

 sification. In his Report of 1808, 



in mentioning his own labours, he 

 says: " M. Cuvier, en etudiant la 

 physiologic des animaux vertebras, 

 a trouve dans la quantite respective 

 de leur respiration, la raison de leur 

 quantite de mouvemeus, et par con- 

 sequent de I'espece de ces mouve- 

 mens. ... En effet, M. Cuvier, 

 ayant examine les modifications qu' 

 eprouvent dans les animaux sans 

 vertebrea les organes de la circula- 

 tion, de la respiration, et des sensa- 

 tions, et ayant calcule les resultats 

 necessaires de ces modifications, en 

 a deduit une division nouvelle ou 

 ces animaux sont ranges suivant 

 leurs veritables rapports" ('Rap- 

 port,' p. 311, &c. ) Compare also 

 Carus, ' Geschichte der Zoologie, ' 

 Miinchen, 1872, p. 602 ; Flourens, 

 " Eloge de Cuvier," in his 'Eloges 

 bistoriques,' 3 me serie, Paris, 1862, 

 p. 122, &c. ; Halm in the : Graude 

 Encyclopedic,' article "Cuvier. " See 

 also the Introduction to the ' Regne 

 animal,' which proposes to arrange 

 living beings according to their " or- 

 ganisation,'' by investigating their 

 " structure," their "internal as well 

 as external conformation." Cuvier 

 here states that no one before had 

 tried to arrange the classes and 

 orders according to the " ensemble 

 de la structure " (p. vi). He is thus 

 led to the law of the " subordination 

 des caracteres, . . . ayaut soin 

 d'etablir toujours la correspond- 

 ance des formes exterieures et in- 

 terieures qui, les unes comme les 



