ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY 



In the course of those studies of comparative anato- 

 my which led to his new classification, Cuvier's atten- 

 tion was called constantly to the peculiar co-ordination 

 of parts in each individual organism. Thus an animal 

 with sharp talons for catching living prey as a mem- 

 ber of the cat tribe has also sharp teeth, adapted for 

 tearing up the flesh of its victim, and a particular type 

 of stomach, quite different from that of herbivorous 

 creatures. This adaptation of all the parts of the ani- 

 mal to one another extends to the most diverse parts 

 of the organism, and enables the skilled anatomist, 

 from the observation of a single typical part, to draw 

 inferences as to the structure of the entire animal a 

 fact which was of vast aid to Cuvier in his studies of 

 paleontology. It did not enable Cuvier, nor does it 

 enable any one else, to reconstruct fully the extinct 

 animal from observation of a single bone, as has some- 

 times been asserted, but what it really does estab- 

 lish, in the hands of an expert, is sufficiently aston- 

 ishing. 



11 While the study of the fossil remains of the greater 

 quadrupeds is more satisfactory," he writes, "by the 

 clear results which it affords, than that of the remains 

 of other animals found in a fossil state, it is also com- 

 plicated with greater and more numerous difficulties. 

 Fossil shells are usually found quite entire, and re- 

 taining all the characters requisite for comparing 

 them with the specimens contained in collections of 

 natural history, or represented in the works of natural- 

 ists. Even the skeletons of fishes are found more or 

 less entire, so that the general forms of their bodies can, 

 for the most part, be ascertained, and usually, at least, 

 YOL. iv. 8 103 



