MODERN SCIENCE. 119 



INTERNAL STRUCTURE and organs. He showed the nature 

 of reptiles. He founded PALEONTOLOGY, too, and had the 

 genius to reconstruct the antediluvian world (so-called) from 

 fossil bones so that he connected past and present animals by 

 comparative anatomy, and, through this, Zoology had a solid 

 basis of classification, and Physiology extensive elements for 

 the explanation of phenomena. He held the doctrine of the 

 fixity or IMMUTABILITY OF SPECIES a doctrine combated by 

 Geoffrey St. Hilaire, and completely overthrown by Darwin's 

 investigations, although it is admitted that some of Cuvier' s 

 views were to a certain extent reconcilable with those of his 

 opponents. Cuvier founded the PARIS MUSEUM, which 

 stood as a model of classification and arrangement. La- 

 marck, Geoffrey St. Hilaire, and Cuvier formed a sort of 

 scientific Triumvirate which swayed immense influence, and 

 gave a powerful impulse to the study of several branches of 

 Biology. Cuvier's colossal working power enabled him to 

 accomplish the labour of several naturalists. He was such 

 a master of comparative anatomy that from seeing the frag- 

 ment of an animal, a bone, or only part of a bone, he could 

 reconstruct the whole : " None of the parts" says he, ' ' can 

 alter without an alteration of the others also. Thus, if the 

 stomach of an animal is made so as only to digest fresh 

 flesh, his jaws must be formed to devour the prey, his claws 

 to seize it and tear it, his teeth to masticate the flesh, and 

 the whole system of his organs of motion to follow and 

 overtake it ; ... so that, not only the class, but the order, 

 the genus, and even the species of an animal are revealed by 

 each part of it." It was by this masterful knowledge that 

 he was able to put together the skeletons of EXTINCT 

 ANIMALS being the first to reveal to astonished naturalists 

 that past geological eras had produced animals differing 

 from ours in some particulars. And this revelation at once 

 set men pondering over the antiquity of the world. He 

 threw light upon the newly discovered Ichthyosaur, Plesio- 

 saur, Iguanodon, Pterodactyl ; on the Mosasaur ; on Tertiary 

 animals, on the Megatherium, the Mammoth, the Mastodon 

 types which had puzzled and confounded naturalists until 

 he demonstrated their nature. 



