136 MEMOIRS OF 



With such objects always in view, M. Cuvier attempted 

 and executed several improvements, of which I shall now 

 speak. The buildings of the ancient College du Plessis. 

 in which the faculties were placed, being in a state of gene- 

 ral dilapidation, he obtained from the government, a grant 

 of the Sorbonne for their use ; and as it was highly impor- 

 tant that the lectures should not be interrupted during the 

 removal, he exerted all his activity, incessantly visited the 

 architect appointed to direct the works, and reiterated his 

 own inspections, till the object was accomplished. The 

 Faculty of Sciences owe the funds they possess for a cabinet 

 of natural history, and for the purchase of various instru- 

 ments, entirely to M. Cuvier's efforts. The appointment 

 of medical officers, who understood natural history, to the 

 government vessels, was solely due to his suggestions, as 

 well as that of attaching collecting travellers to the museum 

 of the Jardin des Plantes. The treasures brought home by 

 the Uranie, the Coquille, and other ships, are proof of the 

 excellence of the first plan ; for the officers were delighted 

 to employ their leasure in drawing, describing, and preserv- 

 ing the objects they met with in the course of their expedi- 

 tion. The rapid increase of the museum at the Jardin, dur- 

 ing the life 6f M. Cuvier, speaks to plainly for the latter to 

 need further comment. The mode of appointing professors 

 is a complicated question in France : some are partizans for 

 election by vote, some support nomination by established 

 high authority, and others, succession. Each of these me- 

 thods is attended with inconvenience ; and voting, which 

 theoretically may appear to be the best, has not realized the 

 hopes of those who caused it to be adopted. It gives an 

 opportunity- for all to enter the lists ; and men of consum- 

 mate skill and experience do not like to find themselves 

 placed in contact with those just issued from the schools; 

 who, with all the fire and confidence of youth, frequently 

 obtain their wishes by their brilliancy, while those of much 

 more real merit are left far behind. The other methods are 

 particularly open to private feelings, or a liability to place 

 men of inferior merit in the professor's chair. To obviate 

 these inconveniences and abuses, M. Cuvier created that 

 method which, in France, is called aggregation. A defeat 

 is of comparatively little consequence to young students ; 



