BARON CUVIER. 15 



the influence of M. Millin, was appointed membre de la 

 Commission des Arts, and, a short time after, professor at 

 the central school of the Pantheon. For this school he 

 composed his " Tableau elementaire de P Histoire natu- 

 relle des Animaux;" which work contained the first me- 

 thodical writing on the class Yermes that had been given 

 to the world. His great desire, however, was to be attach- 

 ed to the Museum of Natural History, the collections in 

 which could alone enable him to realise his scientific 

 views. A short time after his arrival in the capital, M. 

 Mertrud was appointed to the newly-created chair of com- 

 parative anatomy at the Jardin des Plantes, and finding 

 himself too far advanced in years to follow a study 

 which had hitherto been foreign to his pursuits, con- 

 sented, at the request of his colleagues, particularly MM. 

 de Jussieu, Geofi'roy, and De la Cepede, to associate M. 

 Cuvier with him in his duties. This association was ex- 

 actly what M. Cuvier was desirous of obtaining ; and no 

 sooner was he settled in the Jardin des Plantes, as the 

 assistant of M. Mertrud, July, 1795, than he sent for his 

 father, then nearly eighty years of age, and his brother, M. 

 Frederic Cuvier ; his mother he had unfortunately lost in 

 1793. From the moment of his installation in this new 

 office, M. Cuvier commenced that magnificent collection 

 of comparative anatomy which is now so generally celebrat- 

 ed. In the lumber-room of the museum were four or five 

 old skeletons, collected by M. Daubenton, and piled up 

 there by M. de Buffon. Taking these, as it were, for the 

 foundation, he unceasingly pursued his object ; and, aided 

 by some professors, opposed by others, he soon "gave it 

 such a degree of importance that no further obstacle could 

 be raised against its progress. No other pursuit, no re- 

 laxation, no absence, no legislative duties, no sorrow, no 

 illness, ever turned him from this great purpose, and creat- 

 ed by him, it now remains one of the noblest monuments 

 to his memory.* 



The National Institute was created in 1796 ; and M. 



* It was of this collection that he said, when asked if he should ever 

 consider himself rich in it, " Gluelque richQ qu'on en soit, on en ddsire tou- 

 jours." (However rich we may be, we always wish for more.) 



