248 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



work on the subject and to found the science of 

 palaeontology. His researches in this subject were 

 based upon the collection of fossil remains which had 

 been begun by Daubenton for the natural history of 

 Buffon, and which he arranged and largely increased ; on 

 the collection which Camper had made at Amsterdam; 

 on descriptions which he procured from all the collectors 

 of Europe, notably from Blumenbach ; on his excavations 

 together with Brogniart in the environs of Paris. As 

 early as 1798 he announced his intention of collecting 

 everything that was known on fossil remains in a great 

 tableau — a plan which was not realised till 1812, when 

 his many separate publications were united in the great 

 work on the " Ossements fossiles," and was only completed 

 by the greatly revised and augmented edition of 1821. 

 This work is important in morphological science, not 

 only because it contains many accurate and still highly 

 valued descriptions of " extinct species," but also because, 

 in its celebrated introduction ^ on the revolutions on the 

 surface of our globe, it takes a comprehensive view of the 

 changing aspects which succeeding ages, divided by great 

 catastrophes characterised by distinct geological formations 



^ In this introduction (p. 52 of 

 vol. i.) there is also to be found the 

 celebrated passage in which Cuvier 

 says that by the application of his 

 principle of the "correlation of 

 parts " he could, if he only pos- 

 sessed one well-preserved fragment 

 of a bone, determine everything as 

 certainly as if he possessed the whole 

 animal — a statement on which De 

 Blainville [loc. cit., p. 417) has some 

 very pertinent remarks : " Ce ne 

 sont pas des anatomistes vdritables 

 comme I'etaient Hunter, Camper, 



Pallas, Vicq-d'Azyr, Blumenbach, 

 Soemmering et Meckel qui se 

 seraient aiusi avances, et M. G. 

 Cuvier aurait et^ bien embarasse 

 lui-meme, si on I'avait pris au mot, 

 et cependant c'est cette assertion 

 qui restera formulee dans la bouche 

 des ignorants,"' &c. Cuvier by this 

 method determined and classed 

 more than 150 mammals (loc. cit., 

 p. 53). A more favourable view of 

 Cuvier's work on fossil remains is 

 taken by Huxley, 'Life of Owen,' 

 vol. ii. p. 297. 



