INTRODUCTION. 135 



the Rhine Valley. Faujas de Saint-Fond tried to prove, in 

 opposition to Cuvier and Blumenbach, that these were identi- 

 cal with the bones of species still existing in Africa. 



The Franconian caves were examined by Esper and Rosen- 

 miiller, and the mammalian remains found in them were 

 thoroughly investigated. The remains of Mastodon and 

 Megalonyx, as well as other gigantic mammalia of America, 

 were quite well known to Buffon and several writers in the 

 eighteenth century. 



But almost all publications on fossil mammalia had been 

 founded on a very insecure scientific basis, and had not 

 attained to any satisfactory result regarding the affinities of the 

 fossil to the living forms. It was the creative genius of Cuvier 1 

 that erected Comparative Anatomy into an independent science, 

 and denned principles upon which the investigation of fossil 

 Vertebrates could be carried out with accuracy. 



Cuvier's papers on fossil Vertebrates, which originally 

 appeared in the Annales du Museum, were collected in 1812 

 and compiled into a separate work, the papers being arranged 

 merely in the order of their publication. 



Cuvier's Researches on Fossil Bones was published as a four- 

 volume work. The first volume contains the famous " Pre- 

 liminary Discourse," which was really written later than the 

 contents of the other three volumes, although all were published 

 together in 1812. The "Discourse" was frequently altered by 

 the author, and ran through six editions. It will be more fully 

 discussed below. The second volume of the Researches begins 

 with some remarks on the sub-divisions of the Pachydermes 

 (Cuvier) among Ungttlates, and on the deposits in which their 

 fossil remains occur. The account of the Pachydermes is 

 followed by a series of studies on the comparative osteology of 

 Hyrax, the fossil and recent walruses, hippopotami, tapirs, 

 and elephants, also the extinct genus Mastodon. The text 



1 Leop. Chr. Friedr. Dagobert Georges Cuvier, born on the 24th 

 August 1769 in the town of Mompelgardt (Montbeliard), which then 

 belonged to Wiirtemberg, was educated at Stuttgart in the " Karl Schule." 

 In 1788 he became tutor to Count d'Hericy at Fiquainville (Calvados); in 

 ! 795> Professor at the Central School in Paris; in 1800, Professor of 

 Natural History at the College of France; in 1802, Professor of Anatomy 

 at the Botanical Garden. Honours were richly showered on him: in 1814 

 he was made a Councillor of State; in 1819, Chief of a Department in the 

 Home Office with the title of Baron; and in 1831 a Peer of France. He 

 died on the I3th May 1832. 



