CH. XXXVIII. CUVIER ON FOSSIL ANIMALS. 397 



general conditions of a carnivorous life, and all animals who 

 are to live this life must fulfil them, otherwise they cannot 

 exist. And besides these general conditions there are 

 special ones, according to the particular kind of life the 

 animal has to live, and each of these require modifications 

 in the form of the organs ; so that not only the class, but the 

 order, the genus, and even the species of an animal are 

 revealed by each part of it.* 



And now you will understand why Cuvier could not 

 believe St.-Hilaire's theory that all the parts of one class of 

 animals — such as the vertebrate animals, for example— are 

 made on one model, and that when some organ has to play 

 a different part it is altered, and not created for the purpose. 

 Cuvier was strongly impressed with the beautiful agreement 

 in every part of each particular animal, which enables it to 

 provide for all its wants ; while St.-Hilaire was equally im- 

 pressed with the general agreement between the structure of 

 all animals in any one great class. Both these views were 

 true, but in the state of knowledge at that time it was very 

 difficult to reconcile them. You must bear this in mind, 

 because it is one of the difficulties upon which light is thrown 

 by Mr. Darwin's observations, which we shall examine 

 by-and-by. 



Cuvier Studies and Eestores the Eemains of Fossil 

 Animals, 1812- — We have seen that Cuvier's knowledge of 

 the agreement between the different parts of an animal was 

 so great that from even one bone he could tell what the other 

 parts of the body must be. The use which he made of this 

 knowledge enabled him to reveal a wonderful history about 

 the fossils buried in the crust of our earth. 



When he first came to Paris, and for many years after- 

 wards, a number of skeletons and parts of skeletons of ani- 



