142 NATURAL HISTORY. 



May Cuvier expired, apparently without pain, and retaining 

 his faculties almost to the last breath. 



Cuvier's scientific activity between 1802 and 1832 was 

 something extraordinary, especially when his numerous 

 administrative and educational duties are taken into 

 account. Nothing but the briefest possible sketch of 

 his published scientific work during the thirty years in 

 question can be attempted here. Let us first deal with 

 his work as a specialist in zoology. Subsequent to 1802, 

 Cuvier may be considered as having more especially 

 devoted himself* l to three lines of inquiry, one dealing 

 with the structure and classification of the Mollusca; a 

 second treating of the comparative anatomy and systematic 

 arrangement of the fishes; and the third concerned with 

 fossil Mammals and reptiles primarily, and secondarily with 

 the osteology of living forms belonging to the same 

 groups. As regards the first of these fields of investiga- 

 tion, Cuvier published a long series of papers on the 

 Mollusca, which began as early as 1792, and dealt with 

 almost all the groups now admitted into this sub-kingdom, 

 with the exception of the Polyzoa. Most of these memoirs 

 were published in the " Annales du Museum," between 1802 

 and 1815, and they were subsequently collected into 

 the well-known and invaluable " Memoires pour servir a 

 1'Histoire et a 1'Anatomie des Mollusques," published in 

 one volume at Paris in 1817. In the department of fishes, 

 Cuvier's researches, begun in 1801, finally culminated in 

 the publication of the " Histoire Naturelle des Poissons." 

 This magnificent work contained descriptions of five 



*This sketch of Cuvier's scientific work from 1802 to 1817 is taken from an 

 article by the present writer in the last edition of the ' Encyclopedia Britannica.' 



