84 MEMOIRS OP 



Cuvier was a contributor the " Dictionnaire des Sciences 

 Medicates." The most important of the papers thus des- 

 tined is that headed " Animal ;" in which, after stating 

 that the power of will can only produce the movements for 

 for which the body is adapted, and that, consequently, the 

 energy of the signs which it gives will bear a proportion to 

 the greater or lesser perfection of the envelope, he takes a 

 rapid view of the beings which fill the interval between the 

 sponge, the animality of which consists solely in the power 

 of contraction ; and the dog, or elephant, each of whom is 

 gifted with a sentiment which often bears the appearance 

 of reason. 



I shall confine myself to the extract of that part which 

 describes the lower order of animals, having already, when 

 mentioning other writings, had occasion to speak frequent- 

 ly of the higher classes. "A little above the sponges are 

 the monades, and other microscopic animals of a homoge- 

 neous substance, simple and uncertain in form, but which 

 move in water with greater or less rapidity. The polypes 

 only exceed these by having an invariable figure, and 

 some distinct members round the mouth ; several of them, 

 fixed to the solid masses which they themselves produce, 

 have no motion but in their members, and are incapable of 

 changing place. The radiata, or sea-nettles, ascend in or- 

 ganization, by having several ramifications of the intestinal 

 canal. The echinodermes possess an envelope more or 

 less hard, and their numerous members serve them for pro- 

 gressive motion. At this point the star form disappears, 

 and gives place to the symmetrical, where similar parts are 

 disposed along a line or axis. Almost all of the most sim- 

 ple of these, the intestinal worms, live in other animals ; 

 they have neither members, nor heart, nor blood vessels ; 

 their body is elongated, and sometimes articulated." To 

 these succeed insects, &c. &c. and the whole concludes 

 with a comparison between plants and animals. 



It is not the just appreciation of Linnaeus and Buffon 

 only that we owe to M. Cuvier : there is yet another cele- 

 brated writer, whose real value may be gathered from 

 his labours; and the profound learning evinced in the 

 notes to M. Lemaire's edition of Pliny show, that M. Cu- 

 vier could make even his classical attainments serve the 



