CUVIER. 137 



resided near Caen in Normandy. Here was spent a further 

 period of nearly seven years from 1788 to the end of 

 1794 in which Cuvier peacefully discharged his tutorial 

 duties, and occupied his leisure time with studying such 

 animals, and particularly such of the lower forms of life, 

 as were accessible to him in his country-retreat. It was 

 in this haven of refuge that Cuvier weathered the stormy 

 period of the ' Reign of Terror,' and it was here that he 

 met the friend who subsequently introduced him to the 

 scientific world of Paris. 



Being one night at a meeting of a local agricultural 

 society of which he was secretary, Cuvier was struck 

 with the extraordinary mastery of the subject under 

 debate that evening shown by one of the members of 

 the society. So remarkable was this mastery, that Cuvier 

 at once concluded that the speaker must be the author 

 of the article ' Agriculture ' in the ' Encyclopedic Metho- 

 dique,' and at the end of the speech saluted him as such. 

 Cuvier was right in his conjecture, and the Abbe 7 Tessier, 

 the writer in question, was at first greatly terrified at 

 the discovery of his personality, for he had been shelter- 

 ing himself at Fecamp from the fury of the Revolution. 

 Cuvier, however, assuaged his fears, and they became fast 

 allies, one result of their friendship being that Tessier 

 wrote strongly to his friends in Paris, recommending Cuvier 

 for some scientific post. In this way Cuvier was intro- 

 duced to the notice of the well-known naturalists, Lacepede 

 and Geoffrey St Hilaire, who strongly urged him to come 

 to Paris, an invitation which he accepted in the year 

 1795. Shortly after his arrival in the metropolis, he was 

 appointed professor of natural history in the Central 



