48 MEMOIRS OF 



beings, it scarcely seems surprising that M. Cuvier should 

 have made those deep researches among the fragments of 

 the former inhabitants of the globe, by which his great 

 name has been associated with every labour relative to the 

 construction of the earth. For although the researches of 

 De Saussure, De Luc, Pallas, and Werner, appeared to have 

 brought geology to the highest perfection it could attain, it 

 was M. Cuvier who gave the impulse, who made a science 

 of fossil organic remains. His powerful comprehension, at 

 the first glance, measured the extent of the science, appreci- 

 ated its importance, and foresaw the light it would shed 

 over the formation of our planet. Already, in 1796, he read 

 a Memoir, at the Institute, which contained his suspicions, 

 that no species of those fossil remains, so abundant in the 

 northern parts of the world, belonged to animals now ex- 

 isting. He even then thought that they had formed beings 

 which had been destroyed by some revolution of the globe, 

 now replaced by others, perhaps equally to be destroyed. 

 With a view of ascertaining the truth of these suppositions, 

 he sought every means of determining the species, genera, 

 and classes of these relics, by an unwearied inspection o. ; 

 all that could be found, by making himself acquainted with 

 the discoveries previously made, by exactly ascertaining the 

 localities where these remains had been dug up, the nature 

 of the soils in which they had been enveloped ; and he elo- 

 quently invited all the savans of Europe to aid him in his 

 great enterprise, impressing on them the importance of these 

 researches, and requesting them to report their labours to 

 him, which labours he promised to state in his work, and 

 which promise he faithfully performed. In the preliminary 

 Discourse of the Fossil Remains (which has been published 

 in a separate form, has undergone several editions, and been 

 translated in almost every modern language, under the title 

 of " Theory of the Earth, ") treating of the revolutions oi 

 the globe, he says, "Antiquary of a new species, I have 

 been obliged at once to learn how to restore these monu- 

 ments of past times, and to decypher their meaning. I 

 have been obliged to collect and bring together the frag- 

 ments which compose them into their primitive order; to 

 reconstruct these ancient beings ; to re-produce them with 

 their proportions and characters ; and, lastly, to compare 



