CH. xxxix. CUVIER. 427 



of the neck that after a very severe illness he was obliged to 

 give up his profession and become a banker's clerk in Paris. 

 He had thus time and opportunity to study natural science, 

 for which he had always had a great liking, and in 1778 he 

 published a small book on botany. Buffon, who was then 

 at the height of his fame, was pleased with this work, and 

 procured for Lamarck an appointment in the botanical de- 

 partment of the Acade'mie des Sciences. From thence he 

 went to the Jardin des Plantes, and eventually became pro- 

 fessor of zoology in the Muse'e d'Histoire Naturelle. 



George Leopold Cuvier, afterwards made baron Cuvier by 

 Louis XVIII., was born of Swiss parents at Montbeliard, near 

 Besar^on, in 1769. He, too, was intended for the church, 

 because his parents were not rich and he had an uncle who 

 could help him in that profession ; bat Prince Charles of 

 Wurtemburg having heard of his abilities, sent for him and 

 gave him a free education in the Academic Caroline at the 

 University of Stuttgard. Here he already began in his spare 

 moments to read books of natural history and to make drawings 

 of plants and animals. When he left Stuttgard he went as 

 tutor in a nobleman's family at Caen, in Normandy, and found 

 a new and delightful study in the examination of the marine 

 animals on the sea-shore. After living there six years, he 

 happened to meet the celebrated Abbe Tessier, who had fled 

 from the Revolution in Paris, and through his means the young 

 Cuvier was introduced to Geoffroy St.-Hilaire and other 

 scientific men in Paris, and became assistant-professor of 

 comparative anatomy in the Jardin des Plantes. From this 

 post he rose to very great honours both as an administrator 

 and man of science, holding the posts of President of the 

 Institute, Inspector-General of education, Councillor of the 

 Imperial University, and many others of equal importance. 



Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, the third and youngest of the three 



