CABINET OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 54 1 



M. Cuvier, desirous of embracing anatomy in 

 its greatest extent, undertook to form a collection 

 which should not only present the skeletons of all 

 animals, as "well as their soft parts preserved in 

 spirits, but also comparative series of the organs 

 of the same nature taken from each animal. He 

 began by arranging all that the Museum possessed, 

 setting apart what was most important for study, 

 as also what was intended to serve as a basis for 

 the general collection, such as the skeletons pre- 

 pared by Daubenton and Mertrud, to which 

 were added those made at the menagerie of 

 Versailles for the Royal Academy of Sciences, by 

 Perrault, La Hire and Duverney. After the pub- 

 lication of Buffon's work these skeletons were 

 stowed in the upper part of the building, which 

 has been since converted into the library. They 

 were mostly broken and in very bad condition, 

 except a few large ones, such as the camel, the 

 African elephant and the rhinoceros, which had 

 been prepared by Mertrud and Vicq-d'Azyr in 

 i 79 3. 



The closets of the cabinet contained only a few 

 skeletons, sculls, and preparations in spirits ; some 

 very incorrect imitations in wax from the human 

 body, by Zumbo ; the bones of the ear and injec- 

 tions by Duverney and Hunault; and other imi- 

 tations in wax of several parts of the human 



